Somalia, UN call for increased funding to curb humanitarian crisis
Somalia and the UN agencies on Friday called on donors to increase their contributions to help address the impact of the current humanitarian crisis in the country.
The government and the aid communities said they are jointly implementing a Drought Impact Response Plan which will provide critical life-saving assistance to 4.5 million Somalis between now and December at a cost of 686 million U.S. dollars.
George Conway, acting United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said the food insecurity situation is now extremely concerning with potentially disastrous consequences for the 2.2 million people facing crisis levels of food insecurity.
"The seasonal harvest is projected to be 50 percent below average and even lower in some areas, while malnutrition, drought-related diseases and displacement as well as protection risks are exacerbating existing vulnerability," Conway said in a joint statement issued in Mogadishu.
"I call on donors to fully resource the Plan and avoid a major crisis," said the UN official amid warning that the recurrent climatic shocks are a clear sign that Somalia is persistently vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
According to the UN, severe climatic conditions, combined with other persistent drivers of humanitarian crisis, armed conflict, continued displacement and a spike in evictions of IDPs are again pushing Somalia towards a major humanitarian crisis, two years after the prolonged 2016/2017 drought destroyed livelihoods and displaced almost one million Somalis.
The UN says delayed start and poor performance of the 2019 Gu' (April-June) rains resulted in severe drought conditions across Somalia through early May, pushing millions of people into acute food insecurity, with dire consequences for marginalized and displaced communities.