Somalia and severe drought: Children dying of malnutrition
Noriko Watanabe and Chika Mori
Modern Tokyo Times
The United Nations (UN) recently warned that Somalia faces a devastating crisis concerning the severe drought that is calamitous for the Horn of Africa. Reports now state that hundreds of children have already died from malnutrition. Therefore, various UN agencies are appealing for donors to come forward and support Somalia.
Somalia is also blighted by the Al-Shabaab (Al-Shabab) Islamist insurgency in this virtually 100 percent Muslim nation. Thus limited resources by the government of this nation are focused on stemming the Islamist insurgency.
Voice of America reports, “The drought devastating the Horn of Africa has hit Somalia the hardest, with an estimated one-half of its 16 million people facing crisis-level food insecurity. Aid groups say hundreds of thousands of Somalis are at risk of starving to death, while hundreds of children are already dying of malnutrition.”
UN News reports, “As a result of the poor rains, Somalia is facing a fourth consecutive failed rainy season and a heightened risk of localized famine in six areas – including in South West State – particularly if food prices continue to rise and humanitarian assistance is not sustained to reach the most vulnerable people.”
Lee Jay Walker says, “G7 nations are fixated on Ukraine – including supplying tens of billions of military arms to this country. However, the entire Sahel region is blighted by Islamist terrorism, food insecurity, and the weakening of nation-states concerning various Islamist insurgencies. Other nations also need international support – from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa to Sri Lanka in Asia, which now faces a devastating economic meltdown.”
Somalia is currently the worst affected area by the ongoing drought that blights the Horn of Africa. However, other nations are also struggling to contain the horrendous convulsions.
UN Special Envoy for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula, said, approximately 1.4 million children faced “acute malnutrition this year, and 330,000 are likely to become severely malnourished.”
In Africa, many nations are struggling against the consequences of climate change, drought, food insecurity, wars, terrorism, ethnic bloodshed, weak infrastructures, health issues, and other important matters. Also, internal political corruption, the exploitation of resources by internal and external forces that don’t benefit the masses, and other issues are exacerbating the problem.
Somalia – and other nations – need urgent international support. However, this international support needs to also focus on long-term solutions and internal crisis management. Therefore, national internal governments, local agencies, regional networks, international donors, the UN, and other important links in the chain must work together.
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