Somalia’s Prime Minister is in Baidoa, the capital of the country’s southwest to assess the drought situation in the region, a statement from his office said on Saturday.
The region is one of the worst affected drought-hit areas of the country with millions of people facing famine.
Somalia’s federal Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble and a delegation arrived in Baidoa for a meeting with the government of the area on mitigating the drought and attend events marking the third anniversary of the election of President Abdi aziz Hassan Mohamed (Lafta-Gareen).
According to the statement from his office Roble will hold a series of meetings with officials of the Southwest State to expedite the electoral process.
Last November the Somali government announced a $1million relief aid for over two million people affected by drought in the central and south of the country.
It came as the United Nations on warned of what it called a rapidly worsening drought situation with water, food and pasture shortages threatening to reach “extreme levels” by April 2021.
PM Roble chaired a meeting of the country’s Drought Relief Committee before announcing the relief.
Somalia currently faces its fourth consecutive season without rainfall, worsening the famine situation in the country.
Hundreds of thousands of people in central and southern regions of the drought-hit country have already left their villages in search of food, water and pasture for their livestock.
Some 5.9 million people across Somalia are in dire need of relief assistance, a number which is set to rise by 30 percent, to some 7.7 million in 2022.
Intermittent insecurity caused by more than a decade-old insurgency by the militant group al-Shabaab has been blamed for worsening an already bad humanitarian situation.
WN/as/APA