Pope Francis Draws Global “attention to the serious humanitarian crisis affecting Somalia”

Somalia and the Horn of Africa countries including Kenya and Ethiopia are experiencing “a historic drought”, the worst in more than four decades, the United Nations (UN) has reported.

In the August 11 report, Africanews.com has quoted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) as saying that the situation of drought in Somalia has displaced up to one million people, with more than 755,000 of them remaining “within the country’s borders” and the others having “fled abroad”. 

The humanitarian crisis in Somalia follows “four failed rainy seasons that have decimated crops and livestock”, the report indicates.

Earlier this year, the leadership of the overseas development agency of the Catholic Bishops of Ireland, Trócaire in Somalia, called for “drastic action” to provide reprieve to the people of God in drought-stricken Horn of Africa nation. 

In a February 11 report, the Country Director of Trócaire in Somalia, Paul Healy, said the effects of the drought were “truly devastating”.

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“Severe water shortages have heightened the risk of disease outbreaks, with people and animals now competing for untreated water from hand-dug shallow wells and dwindling rivers.  Cases of Acute Watery Diarrhoea/Cholera, and outbreaks of measles, are on the rise in multiple drought-affected locations,” Mr. Healy said.

The Trócaire official made reference to witness accounts, saying that there were Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) feeding on animal carcasses at night, a practice that was creating a further severe risk of disease.

“These are times of great hunger. Children are the most vulnerable. There is limited access to food, and food prices are rising, predisposing families and their children to severe malnutrition,” the District Commissioner (DC) of Luuq District in the Southwestern Gedo Province of Somalia was quoted as saying.

In the February 11 report, Fatuma Ganun Mohamed, an IDP, was quoted as saying that the drought “took our livestock; we had to leave behind our rural house and the little we had to get something to eat for our children.”

“Living in the camp is very difficult, especially for the children, who are very thin and sick most of the time,” Ms. Mohamed said.

In an April report, the Country Director of Trócaire in Somalia 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 made reference to the Dollow referral health center in Gedo where he said the 110 babies being delivered and discharged within 24 hours on average makes the hunger situation dire as these children are vulnerable.

“These are times of great hunger. Children are the most vulnerable. There is limited access to food, and food prices are rising, predisposing families and their children to severe malnutrition,” Mr. Healy said in the April 7 report.

“Climate change is wreaking havoc,” the official of Trócaire said, and added, “Severe water shortages have heightened the risk of disease outbreaks, with people and animals now competing for untreated water from hand-dug shallow wells and dwindling rivers.”

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

The official of the development agency of the Catholic Bishops of Ireland said that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine had worsened the situation as the flow of raw materials to the Horn of Africa countries had been disrupted.

“Now, staple foods such as wheat are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive as trade routes from Ukraine and Russia are severely disrupted. Many countries in the region usually import 60-80 per cent of their wheat from Ukraine,” Mr. Healy said. 

“With these imports disrupted, the price of bread and other staple foods is rapidly rising, affecting the poorest families most of all,” he further said in the April 7 report, adding that the number of Somalians in dire need of humanitarian assistance was almost up to half of the total population of the Horn of Africa nation.

Last month, Mr. Healy there was “severe malnutrition” in parts of Somalia’s Gedo region and that the situation was to “get much worse” if action was not to be taken urgently.

“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. 

Mr. Healy added, “Since January, at least 448 children have died from severe acute malnutrition.”

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.