Unicef on Tuesday sounded the alarm on the food crisis in Somalia, where acute malnutrition threatens half of the under-fives due to the drought affecting this country in the Horn of Africa.
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After three seasons of poor rainfall and a fourth in sight, Somalia, ravaged by decades of war, needs urgent international humanitarian support, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned.
"
Malnutrition has reached crisis levels
," said UNICEF Somalia communications manager Victor Chinyama.
“
It is time to act now
,” he told reporters in Geneva, via video link, warning: “
If you wait until the situation deteriorates or famine is declared, it may be too late
".
Somalia is the Horn of Africa country most severely affected by drought.
According to the UN, 4.1 million people - a quarter of the population - need emergency food aid.
Children under five are particularly affected by the crisis.
Some 1.4 million of them - about half - are at risk of acute malnutrition, and of these, 330,000 will need treatment for severe acute malnutrition, Chinyama said.
7500 cases of measles
Unicef urgently needs $7 million by March to order ready-to-use therapeutic food.
Otherwise, 100,000 very hungry children will be deprived of life-saving treatment.
Severe acute malnutrition is characterized by very significant weight loss and the child is faced with a very high risk of illness (diarrhoea, measles, etc.) and mortality.
Around 7,500 measles cases were recorded in Somalia last year, double the cases of 2019 and 2020 combined.
The drought is also causing a migration crisis, Chinyama said.
Around 500,000 people have left their homes since November in search of food, water and pasture.
This figure comes on top of the 2.9 million people already displaced within the country.
Drought and displacement are also synonymous with insecurity for children in Somalia, where Al-Shabaab rebels control vast territories in rural areas.
In 2021, armed groups recruited 1,200 children - including 45 girls - and forcibly abducted 1,000 others, according to Unicef.
In total, Unicef still needs $38 million to meet humanitarian needs in Somalia this year.