The Somalia branch of Save the Children has announced that the number of children seeking protection from starvation in the southern part of Somalia has increased fivefold.
Monsignor Joji Vadakara, Vatican City
As thousands of families displaced by the climate crisis in Somalia continue to suffer from hunger, the number of children seeking treatment for severe malnutrition in Baidoa, in the south of the country, has increased fivefold between January and October, according to Save the Children, which fights for children’s rights around the world.
Malnutrition rates are the same as in 2011, according to preliminary data from a survey of 90,000 urban children by the country’s community health workers. About two hundred and sixty thousand people died during the famine of 2011. Half of them were children.
Over 600,000 people who have been forced to leave their homes due to the current climate crisis are living in 500 camps around the city. In many places many children died due to delay in getting treatment. Due to lack of water and severe drought, crops have failed in these areas and animals including cattle have died.
According to the latest figures from the United Nations, half of Somalia’s 1.5 billion people are facing severe food shortages. Estimates indicate that about three lakh people will be severely hungry by December. If the number of people facing severe drought was 32 lakhs last December, this time it is 78 lakhs.
Save the Children, which has been working in Somalia and Somaliland since 1951 with various programs to support children’s health, education and nutrition, reached over 3 million people last year, including 1.7 million children.