Somalia is close to going into famine.
According to FSAU, Somalia has an “ongoing and sustained humanitarian crisis,” with up to 200,000 children malnourished. Without immediate funding for emergency nutrition, more people will become malnourished and vulnerable to diseases. One in six children under the age of five are acutely malnourished and one in twenty are severely malnourished.
The problem is particularly acute among Somalia’s internally displaced persons (IDPs), who live mostly in four camps. Most have been in the camps since early 2007, when an upsurge of violence in Mogadishu sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing.
In a recent report, OneWorld quoted two mothers in the camps:
Zeinab Sheikh Hassan, a mother of eight, said: “I have been in this camp for nearly two years. We had some assistance and although it was never adequate, we never went totally without food for long. Now we are really suffering. It is as if we have been forgotten.”
Mako Ahmed, a mother of six, said she arrived in Camp Buur Bishaaro in August 2007. “We came with nothing. I left Mogadishu in a hurry. It has been very difficult, now it is getting worse. My children barely eat.”
Over 3.2 million people are in need of aid but the delivery has become more and more difficult as a result of increased targeting of aid workers. Without escorts, shippers are nervous about delivering into Somalia, and regularly refuse to do so. The WFP has halted food distribution in Merka – except for some distributions to hospitals and supplementary feeding – because of lack of security.
According to USAID, there is a “high level of food insecurity in most parts of the country, as well as limited access to healthcare, clean water, and adequate sanitation.” Food insecurity is growing and conditions are not expected to change through June 2009.
Filed under: Africa, East Africa, Food Poverty, Global Food Crisis | Tagged: Africa, food insecurity, Global Food Crisis, Global Poverty, Somalia
