Somalia On “fast track towards famine”, Catholic Entity Warns, Calls for Immediate Action

At least 7.1 million people in Somalia cannot meet their food requirements and are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, with more than 200,000 facing “catastrophic hunger” the World Food Program (WFP) reported in August. 

The United Nations (UN) body has estimated that 1.5 million children under five years are suffering from acute malnutrition with 386,000 of them facing “a high risk of disease and death”.

In the October 18 Trócaire report, Mr. Healy criticizes governments for their laxed response to the crisis in the Horn of Africa nation and says that the international community “needs to act and act now”. 

“Hunger is claiming lives at an ever-increasing rate. The alarm has been sounding for months but the international community and governments have not adequately responded. How many more people need to die before the world acts?” the Trόcaire official poses.

He calls underscores the need for the international community to intervene in addressing the situation in Somalia, saying that the number of malnourished children in Dollow referral health center in Gedo has tripled in the recent months.

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“We are barely able to cope with the numbers in Gedo. Our stabilization units are full.  It questions what value the world is putting on human lives,” Mr. Healy laments in the October 18 report, adding that the situation in Somalia might worsen in the near future as a larger part of the country is “about to enter what is projected to be its fifth failed rainy season”.

“A failed rainfall season in late 2022 would leave no prospects for recovery until at least the start of the next rainfall season in April 2023,” he says.

The Trόcaire official adds that the situation in the country has been “exacerbated in many places by conflict, and by rising food prices due in part to the war in Ukraine, and reduced supply from neighboring countries also struggling.” 

Mr. Healy says women bear the brunt of the food crisis as they are compelled to reduce their food consumption for the sake of their children.

He adds that girls are also vulnerable as they are forced to drop out of school. These girls, he says, expose themselves to “higher risk of child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

In an April report, Mr. Healy had said that extreme hunger was ravaging various parts of Somalia’s Gedo region and warned that the situation, which was occasioned by climate change, was likely to worsen if urgent action would not be taken.

“Severe hunger has taken hold and it will get much worse in the coming months unless urgent action is taken,” Mr. Healy said in the April 7 report.

He further said, “The failure of three successive rainy seasons has destroyed livelihoods and forced families to leave their homes in search of food and water.”

Three months later, in July, Mr. Healy still reported “severe malnutrition” in parts of Somalia’s Gedo region and called for immediate action.

“Severe malnutrition has taken hold in Somalia and it will get much worse in the coming months unless urgent action is taken,” the Trócaire Somalia Country Director was quoted as saying in a July 11 report and added, “Since January, at least 448 children have died from severe acute malnutrition.”

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Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.