Less than five years after famine devastated Somalia, the country is yet again on the brink of famine. If calls for aid are not heeded within the next couple of months, millions of the country’s children are at risk of dying as the country slides back into famine. In 2011 nearly 250,000 people died, 130,000 of those that died were children under the age of five. The international community has been slow to respond to intensifying droughts. With the spring rains expected to fail, the tragedy of five years ago, looks set to repeat.
Long-term effects of famine
If the rain fails, rivers dry up quickly, crops fail, livestock dies, food staples skyrocket in price and millions of lives are at risk. Already, malnutrition and starvation are beginning to have an effect on Somalia’s children. Approximately 363,000 children under the age of five are already acutely malnourished with an estimated 71,000 severely malnourished.
The time to act is now
As conditions start to deteriorate in the region, desperate families are fleeing with their children to neighbouring countries which puts them at risk of exploitation, separation and perhaps even death. It is time for the international community to take action immediately. Save the Children says there is a small window to stop what happened five years ago from happening again, but that window is rapidly shrinking.
Save the Children on the ground
Save the Children needs £48 million to reach 1.2 million Somalis affected by the crisis. The organisation is already delivering aid to some of the hardest-hit communities. Save the Children is providing clean drinking water, health and nutrition services, food vouchers and unconditional cash transfers. The work that Save the Children is doing in Somalia is part of the aid agency’s, wider response to the crisis that is hitting the Horn of Africa.
This work in Somalia is part of the organisation’s wider response to help vulnerable children and families affected by the drought in the Horn of Africa, including in Ethiopia and Kenya. The agency is desperate need of funding to continue with its emergency response.
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