Somalia NGO Constortium
Sunday May 19, 2019
Parents attend to their malnourished child inside the pediatric ward at the Banadir hospital in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, July 19, 2011. FEISAL OMAR/REUTERS/FEISAL OMAR/REUTERS
At least 1.7 million people in Somalia face acute food shortages due
to delayed and insufficient seasonal rainfall, humanitarian aid agencies
have warned, calling for urgent humanitarian support to save the lives
of hundreds of thousands of families at risk.
The national and international agencies operating in the country under
the umbrella of the Somalia NGO Consortium, said that reduced access to
safe water and growing food insecurity is already putting at risk the
lives of millions Somali populations. They called for an immediate and
scaled up response to the growing humanitarian needs in the country.
“The number of people facing acute food shortages is increasing, but we
are yet to see strong commitments and unified efforts to save lives.
This is very concerning,” said Nasra Ismail, Director of Somalia NGO
consortium. “We must strengthen our efforts and increase resources in
responding to the needs of families and minimize human suffering,” she
added.
The warning is in response to the release of the Food Security and
Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and FEWS NET report issued in April,
2019 that warned of a worsening food security situation in the country.
The report confirmed that at least 1.7 million people are now estimated
to be in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) and Emergency (IPC Phase 4) between April
and June 2019 – a 10 percent increase from the initial estimates made in
February up until June 2019. The total number of people who do not have
access to sufficient food has also increased from 4.6 to 4.9 million
people which is at least 40% of the total population. “Most families
were yet to recover from previous droughts and with critically low
rainfall this season we will likely see increased vulnerability for many
to renewed risks that we may not have seen before.
Without an urgently scaled-up response, the impact of this drought will
be severe,” said Ismail. “Our priority is to save lives and prevent the
situation from deteriorating even further. We can only do this by
investing more resources towards drought response interventions,” she
added.
Although most parts of the country has received moderate to heavy rains
this week, this year’s Gu rains ( April-June) are too late and too
little to make an impact in food availability.
For more information or to arrange interviews contact:
- Jamillah Mwanjisi, Chair of Advocacy Working Group- Somalia NGO Consortium. Mobile phone: +254 732 334 496,
Email: [email protected]