With the latest analysis showing that Somalia’s main harvest was the worst since the famine in 2011, Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock has called for sustained funding to protect recent gains made in beating back hunger.
Speaking at the end of a two-day mission to Somalia undertaken with the World Bank, Lowcock said that the analysis also shows that the harvest from the April-June cropping season is the worst since 2011 because of poor and erratic rains, followed by flooding at the end of the rainy season
“As a result, up to six million people are now projected to be food insecure over the coming months. A third of them will be severely food insecure without sustained aid. And climate-related events will continue to have deleterious effects on the humanitarian situation in Somalia,” he said in a statement issued in Nairobi on Friday.
“The latest food security analysis for Somalia shows that our response is working. One million fewer Somalis are hungry today than had been projected because we acted early when we saw the situation could deteriorate and because aid workers are able to deliver,” Lowcock said.
Over the past 30 years, droughts have become more intense and frequent in Somalia, which also faces recurring flooding during the rainy seasons.
Much of Somalia’s infrastructure is dilapidated as a result of the decades-long conflict and lack of investment, which further undermines the country’s ability to cope.
Together with ongoing conflict, these shocks continue to drive people from their homes. The 2.6 million people already displaced are often marginalized on the fringes of society, facing evictions and other indignities.
The delegation visited Baidoa where nearly 360,000 people who fled slow onset drought, terrorist attacks and armed conflict over the past three years live in 400 sites in and around the town.
“A sustained humanitarian response must be combined with government-led developmental and peacebuilding approaches to promote reconciliation and to assist people to rebuild their country,” said United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco.
JK/abj/APA