Severe drought and four failed rainy seasons have left areas of Somalia on the verge of famine, the United Nations reported. Martin Griffiths, director of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), declared on Monday that “famine was at the door” and that it will probably strike south-central Somalia between October and December of this year.
“The worst drought in four decades is expected to last longer. This is a humanitarian crisis, to use those overused phrases, and nowhere is that more accurate than right now. We anticipate an increase in the needs,” he continued. The greatest drought in decades, which is being caused by climate change and is also affecting the wider Horn of Africa, including Ethiopia and Kenya, has forced at least 1 million people from their homes in Somalia.
Humanitarian organizations have been warning about the situation’s deterioration for months; last month, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) reported that 22 million more people in the region were at risk of hunger. According to UN agencies, 7.8 million people in Somalia alone, or over half the population, are suffering from crisis levels of hunger, while an estimated 1 million people have fled their homes in a desperate search for food and water.
