São Paulo – The United Nations (UN) have put out a call for urgent steps to be taken in order to prevent severe famine in Somalia. According to Peter de Clercq, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the country, the time has come to take action. “If we do not scale up the drought response immediately, it will cost lives, further destroy livelihoods, and could undermine the pursuit of key State-building and peacebuilding initiatives,” he admonished in an interview with the UN News Centre.
Lack of rain and water have destroyed crops and caused the deaths of many animals in the country. Further compounding the problem, several communities have been forced to sell assets and borrow food and money to survive.
The number of people requiring aid went from 5 million as of September 2016 to over 6.2 million at this time, which is half the Somali population. The number of people in “crisis” and “emergency” situations is also rising: it was 1.1 million six months ago and is seen reaching 3 million between February and June.
The situation is the worst among the youngest: some 363,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished and in need of critical nutritional support.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
