Severe Drought Affects 4.3 Million Somalis, UN Humanitarian Agency Says

An estimated 4.3 million people in several parts of Somalia face food and water shortages due to a severe drought that is ravaging the country, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said on Monday. Some 271,000 have abandoned their homes in search of water, food and pasture. “With the next rainy season not expected until April 2022, Somalia is staring at a potential catastrophe,” UNOCHA said in a report released in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund has allocated $25 million and the Somalia Humanitarian Fund some $6 million for the drought response. Additional funding is urgently required, said UNOCHA, to save lives and livelihoods. “Severe water shortages and inadequate access to sanitation and hygiene facilities have heightened the risk of disease outbreaks,” UNOCHA said. The drought is projected to intensify as Somalia faces the risk of a fourth consecutive failed rainy season in early 2022. This compounds the decades of armed conflict, environmental disasters, and disease outbreaks that have devastated Somalia. Thousands of children have dropped out of school as parents can no longer afford to pay fees, said UNOCHA, adding that food insecurity and malnutrition are on the rise.