The United Nations has predicted famine in Somalia in no distant time saying, it would occur later this year in the southern Bay region.
“Famine is at the door” in Somalia, with concrete indications it will occur later this year in the southern Bay region”.
Also, the UN said it falls just short of a formal famine declaration in Somalia as thousands of people are dying in a historic drought made worse by the effects of the war in Ukraine.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths who disclosed this told reporters that he was shocked by what he experienced on a visit to Somalia where he witnessed starving babies too weak to cry.
Further, Griffiths explained that, at least, one million people in Somalia have been displaced by the worst drought in decades, driven by climate change, affecting the wider Horn of Africa, including Ethiopia and Kenya.
Famine, however, is the extreme lack of food and a significant death rate from outright starvation or malnutrition combined with diseases like cholera. A declaration means data shows more than a fifth of households have extreme food gaps, more than 30% of children are acutely malnourished and over two people out of 10,000 die daily.
But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been described as a disaster for Somalia, which has suffered from a shortage of humanitarian aid as international donors focus on Europe. Somalia also sourced at least 90% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine before the war and has been hit hard by scarcity and the sharp rise in food prices.
