"Children die of starvation before our eyes": How many more should die in Somalia?
Three crises are plaguing the East African country simultaneously - global warming, rising food prices and war.
"In all the 23 years I have worked in the humanitarian field, this is the most serious crisis I have seen, especially in terms of the impact on the children," said an aid worker
Tali Goldstein
22/06/2022
Wednesday, 22 June, 2022, 18:05 Updated: 18:49
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Every morning in the Somali border town, 11-year-old Bashir Nur Salat plans how to get lunch for that day.
Equipped with a yellow shirt, a book asked by an author and a smile, he does not know where the food will come from.
Bashir lives in a place where three crises intersect - global warming, rising food prices and war.
The severe drought has forced his family to leave their farm and move 100 km north to the city of Dolo on the border with Ethiopia. The only ones in town.
"When I do not get food, I am so hungry: I lie down and do not fall asleep," Bashir said.
He did not eat dinner last night or breakfast.
The eight brothers and sisters who are in the house are all hungry, he added.
The drought is expected to intensify due to climate change.
A third of the herd has already died of hunger or thirst.
Fruit and grain trees withered.
Famine in Somalia (Photo: Official Website, Photograph: Islamic Relief)
"Dying of hunger before our eyes"
Somalia, which also has Islamist organizations that have long opposed the regime, needs to import more food, but people can not pay for it anyway.
Foreign aid is dwindling and food prices are rising due to the war in Ukraine, the world's fourth-largest exporter of grain.
At least 448 children have died in it since January due to acute
malnutrition, according to the UN. The real figure must surely be much higher.
, Amid reports of aid workers seeing children dying in the country from starvation "before their eyes".
In a message to 7G leaders expected to meet Sunday in Germany, Michael Dunford, Regional Director of the World Food Program (WFP) for East Africa, stressed that governments must contribute urgently and generously if the world wants to preserve a glimmer of hope that a disaster can still be prevented.
"We need money, and we need it now," Danford said.
"If we succeed in preventing hunger in Somalia? Unless funding increases massively and immediately, it will not be possible, that is the truth. The only way now is a huge investment in humanitarian aid, as well as all partnerships and stakeholders uniting to prevent it."
Bashir's family used to enjoy three meals a day: milk from the cows on the farm and beans and sorghum.
The fort took the 12 cows and 21 goats of the family.
"I have never seen such a drought," said Bashir's 30-year-old mother.
She and her nine children are currently sleeping on mattresses.
On a successful day, Bashir's father used to earn $ 2 from the sale of coal in a nearby town, but since May he has managed to send only $ 10 due to lack of work.
The family does not receive any food aid at all.
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Famine in Somalia (Photo: Reuters)
89 million people suffer from "food insecurity"
The Horn of Africa region is now experiencing the driest period in its history.
The severe drought is due to climate change, especially the El Niña phenomenon.
Ocean warming is also adversely affecting the situation, according to climate experts.
In addition, temperatures in Somalia rose by an average of 1.7 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial period - faster than the global rate of 1.2 degrees Celsius.
The Horn of Africa is also witnessing other natural disasters related to the climate, such as severe floods, a record number of cyclone storms and locust swarms.
"They have no moment to recover," Aboubker Salih Babiker, a climate scientist, told Reuters.
The situation is exacerbated by the ongoing conflict between Islamist rebels and the government and rising prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Across East Africa, 89 million people are currently suffering from a state of "acute food insecurity", according to WFP.
Famine in Somalia (Photo: Reuters)
Last year, the Guardian, UK and other 7G leaders reportedly promised to provide $ 7 billion in aid to prevent famine in the countries, but the East African region failed to raise enough money to prevent famine.
These leaders are now being asked to pledge immediate assistance for Somalia, whose situation is most dire.
By September, at least 213,000 people in the country are expected to go hungry. 1.5 million children under the age of five will suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of 2022. And the numbers are expected to rise.
"I can honestly say that in all the 23 years I have worked in the humanitarian field, this is the most serious crisis I have seen, especially in terms of the impact on children," said Claire Sanford, deputy head of the Save the Children organization.
"His hunger was witnessing in Somalia worsening faster than we estimated," she told the Guardian.
In 2011, more than 250,000 people died of starvation in the country - most of them children.
"We are seeing children die before our eyes, populations are losing their livelihoods. We may have learned the lesson of 2011, but we have not been able to implement it due to lack of funding," Sanford said.
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