An estimated 2.2 Million people in Somalia are in urgent need of food following below average rains in the country.
Aid agencies say the humanitarian situation has deteriorated at an alarming rate with widespread crop failure and a decline in livestock productivity.
Most of those affected are internally displaced persons.
Aid agencies working in Somalia warn that the country is enduring its third-driest long rains season since 1981.
Millions are faced with starvation as the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.
Deputy Director of Save The Children Somalia, Laura Jepson-Lay says, “Around half the population of Somalia are food insecure, of those 1.7m are acutely food insecure and indeed of urgent humanitarian assistance. We are seeing increasingly rapidly increasing malnutrition rates among children under five and it is estimated that 1.2million children will be malnourished throughout 2019.”
At the beginning of the year, the United Nations (UN) made a humanitarian appeal for Somalia of $1.2Billion. The response has been slow it is 19% funded and now aid agencies say urgent funding is needed to avert a humanitarian disaster.
“If the funding does not come, the response doesn’t come and we will see loss of life, there is no question about it,” adds Laura Jepson-Lay.
Save the Children says it has began trucking water and providing cash vouchers to those affected but more will be needed because the situation is expected to extend beyond Somalia.
