The United Nations has shared a recent report that claims that close to 6.6 million people in Somalia are facing a crisis or worse food insecurity outcomes. This comes even after the relative improvement in the rain forecast and a decline in food prices.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has shared that acute food insecurity levels in Somalia are expected to remain very high through June and up to 39% of the total population could require urgent humanitarian assistance. According to the IPC, the sharp increase in food prices since mid-2021 has been a key driver of this crisis. It has been predicted that approximately 1.8 million children could be acutely malnourished in Somalia from January to December 2023, of these over 470,000 are expected to be severely malnourished.
The IPC has stated that “To prevent worsening of food insecurity and nutrition outcomes, additional coordinated funding is urgently needed for scaling up and sustaining high levels of multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance that includes food security, nutrition, health, and WASH interventions through at least June 2023, and likely through late 2023”. They have also suggested that humanitarian access and coverage of affected areas need to be improved to reach the populations in greatest need.
The report also suggests providing support to the farmers such that they are able to take maximum advantage of the oncoming rainfall season. They have also added that apart from humanitarian assistance, complementary recovery, and development assistance should be provided so that the underlying cause of this acute food insecurity can be tackled.
Although there are reports of a better rainfall season from April to June, there are also predictions of flooding in some southern regions during March.
