At a food distribution center in Kismayo, about 530 kilometers from Mogadishu, the Somali capital, mothers chatted with nurses as they waited their turn after traveling long distances to get groceries for their children .
At Kismayo General Hospital, I met a young mother who was being admitted to the cholera treatment center with her malnourished son. Keeping the sick baby meant leaving her other children at home unattended.
These are the faces behind the numbers in the Horn of Africa region, where tens of millions of people are at risk of starvation.
In Somalia, five consecutive rainy seasons with below-average rainfall in the past three years have resulted in its worst drought on record. Fortunately, thanks to the increase in humanitarian aid and the joint efforts of all actors, as well as the generous support of donors, famine was avoided. Still, the emergency is far from over and food insecurity is expected to affect almost half the country’s population in the coming months, leaving a trail of disease and death in its wake: In 2022, the drought in Somalia caused an estimated 43,000 deaths, according to a study commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN children’s aid organization UNICEF.
In Somalia, five consecutive rainy seasons with below-average rainfall in the past three years have resulted in its worst drought on record
WHO is working with the Somali Ministry of Health and other partners to organize immunization campaigns that have mobilized more than 2,000 community health workers and 160 community health teams and reached more than 7 million people. This has helped improve the situation as many children were referred to specialized centers for treatment of severe malnutrition with medical complications.
Although the rainy season (March-May) has brought relief to many areas this year, the effects of the drought remain and are being exacerbated by flooding, which has so far displaced more than 220,000 people in Somalia, raising the risk of epidemic outbreaks leads .
Climate change has altered weather patterns, with extreme weather events expected to become more frequent and intense, with their impact on vulnerable communities exacerbated by high food prices and conflict in some areas.
As a result, the prospects for food security and health are negative for Horn of Africa countries such as Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. A total of 53 million people – one in six in the region – do not have enough to eat. This represents a significant increase compared to the same period last year, when 37 million people were affected by food security.
One in six people in the region does not have enough to eat. This represents a significant increase compared to the same period last year.
The region is battling multiple epidemic outbreaks: cholera, measles, meningitis, malaria, dengue fever, hepatitis E, and anthrax. Flooding is expected to aggravate the situation.
The hardest hit are children, pregnant women and displaced people. This year, acute malnutrition is likely to affect 11.9 million children under the age of five. Travel, which is already at its peak, increases the risk of illness. The region is home to more than 16 million refugees and internally displaced people, most of them victims of conflict, and more than two million people displaced by drought. These large-scale displacements are often accompanied by deteriorating hygiene and sanitation facilities and limited access to health services.
We found that through concerted and well-funded action, it was possible to prevent famine in Somalia and bring sick people back to health, particularly acutely malnourished children. So far, however, only a tiny fraction of the $178 million (€163 million) requested in our emergency appeal for the Horn of Africa region has been raised, and resources are running low. Without more resources, we risk undoing progress and leaving millions even more vulnerable to starvation, disease and death. We can not permit that.
Liesbeth Aelbrecht is the World Health Organization (WHO) Incident Manager for the Horn of Africa region.
You can keep following PLANETA FUTURO TwitterFacebook and Instagram and subscribe to our “Newsletter” here.