Africa

Somalia in crisis but not yet at famine levels

Report says ‘appalling outcomes’ have been temporarily averted

A girl and her niece build a tent from sticks and rags on the edge of Baidoa, in southern Somalia. More than 165,000 refugees have streamed into Baidoa since early last year, fleeing the ravages of a fierce drought. Photograph: Andrea Bruce/New York Times
A girl and her niece build a tent from sticks and rags on the edge of Baidoa, in southern Somalia. More than 165,000 refugees have streamed into Baidoa since early last year, fleeing the ravages of a fierce drought. Photograph: Andrea Bruce/New York Times
Tue Dec 13 2022 - 12:18

Food insecurity and acute malnutrition in Somalia has not reached “IPC Phase 5 Famine” levels between October and December 2022, although the situation there is still a crisis, UN agencies and aid groups said on Tuesday.

The assessment was issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which sets the global standard for determining the severity of food crises.

Humanitarian organisations have warned for months that parts of Somalia's Bay region were on the verge of famine because of the impact of a two-year drought, compounded by rising global grain prices and a long-running Islamist insurgency.

The IPC said in a report that following the commendable response efforts of humanitarian actors and local communities, the food insecurity and acute malnutrition situation has not reached famine levels.

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“The underlying crisis however has not improved and even more appalling outcomes are only temporarily averted,” the IPC said. “Prolonged extreme conditions have resulted in massive population displacement and excess cumulative deaths.”

The IPC said in a report that 214,000 people in Somalia were classified as being in IPC Phase 5 Catastrophe in October-December.

This was expected to rise to 322,000 in January-March and 727,000 in April-June amid an anticipated reduction in funding for humanitarian assistance, it said.

The IPC said Phase 5 Famine was projected in April-June among agropastoral populations in Baidoa and Burhakaba districts and displaced populations in Baidoa town of Bay region and in Mogadishu.

These population groups are already experiencing very high levels of acute malnutrition and mortality, the report added.

Somalia's last famine, in 2011, killed more than a quarter of a million people.

Some aid workers have warned that this time could be even worse than in 2011. The drought has laid waste to the Somali countryside, leaving crops shrivelled and the scrublands dotted with the corpses of emaciated livestock. - Reuters

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