MOGADISHU: Famine is stalking Somalia after a year of poor rains and heavy fighting, with more than a million lives at risk, the top UN envoy to the country has warned.
Three years ago food shortages killed 260,000 people.
Many of the warning signs ahead of that disaster have appeared again this year, including poor rainfall, large numbers of people fleeing their homes, and roads blocked by the extremist Al Shabab group.
“In plain language we are concerned about the risk of a repetition of the famine of 2011,” said Nicholas Kay, head of the UN mission in Somalia. More than a million people are just “one step below” famine, he said, already hungry and in danger of worse. “A mixture of climatic reasons, displacement of population, and active Al Shabab tactics of preventing food reaching towns by road, that combination of circumstances means we could tip over into famine.”
Another two million people are only just able to feed themselves and their families, the UN has estimated. A call for $1bn to cover food, education, shelter and healthcare for the country’s most vulnerable people has only won promises of $313m.
The Guardian
