Somalia Starves

 213,000 people are on the brink of starvation in drought-struck Somalia as food prices soar, United Nations agencies say.

The agencies said on Monday that a fourth consecutive rainy season had failed in the Horn of Africa country, and meteorologists are warning of another below-average rainy season later this year as the world’s climate becomes more erratic. This is causing the worst drought in 40 years in Somalia and a major hunger crisis.

Also according to a statement from the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) 7.1 million Somalis or nearly half the population face acute levels of food insecurity, meaning they will be barely able to get the minimum calories they need and might have to sell assets to survive. Around three million livestock have died in Somalia due to the drought that has lasted since mid-2021, a terrible toll in a largely pastoral country where families rely on their herds for meat, milk and trade, the agencies said.

“We must act immediately to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe,” said El-Khidir Daloum, the WFP’s country director in Somalia. “The lives of the most vulnerable are already at risk from malnutrition and hunger; we cannot wait for a declaration of famine to act. It’s a race against time to prevent famine.”

“We’re calling on the international community to act fast while we still have some hope of preventing … widespread famine in Somalia,” the FAO’s representative in Somalia Etienne Peterschmitt said.

The UN’s 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan is only 18 percent funded to date, and Somalia is competing funding as food insecurity spreads around the world.

More than 200,000 face starvation in Somalia as rains fail: UN | United Nations News | Al Jazeera