Wednesday March 30, 2022
Somalia faces a risk of famine in mid-2022 if the
forthcoming April to June Gu rains fail, purchasing power declines to record
lows, and food assistance does not reach areas of high concern, warns a United
Nations-backed food security report released on Monday.
The joint assessment by the Food Security and Nutrition
Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSNAU), a project managed by Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Famine Early Warning Systems
Network (FEWSNET) says up to five million people will require urgent
humanitarian assistance to prevent worse food security outcomes in Somalia.
"Unless we are empowered to act now, by a significant
injection of resources, we will start to see irreversible loss of lives and
collapse of livelihoods and increased population displacement from the rural
areas, as we have in the not-so-distant past," FAO Representative in
Somalia, Etienne Peterschmitt warned.
"Data is very clear. Our window to prevent the worst is
closing fast. If we cannot reach rural communities where they are in the coming
months, the burden of collective responsibility for what is to come will be
heavy indeed," he said in the report which was released in Mogadishu, the
capital of Somalia.
The report says water shortages, livestock deaths and
skyrocketing food prices exacerbated by ongoing conflict and global supply
shocks have caused a rapid deterioration of food security.
The humanitarian situation in Somalia was already grave due
to decades of conflict, recurrent climate shocks and disease outbreaks,
including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the UN.
Even before the current drought, an estimated 7.7 million
Somalis were in need of humanitarian assistance and protection this year, up 30
percent from a year ago.
The UN says the situation has deteriorated, with the current
drought wiping out crop harvests and livestock dying due to a lack of water and
pasture, depriving many pastoral communities of their only source of income.
The report says the UN, government and humanitarian partners
are ramping up responses in order to meet critical needs and to avoid
disastrous consequences.
However, without additional funding soon, the response will
come to a standstill at the worst possible time, the FAO said.