The latest acute food insecurity report (IPC report) on Somalia issued Tuesday finds famine in that country has been narrowly averted for now due to the response efforts of humanitarian organizations and local communities to the crisis. While famine has not been officially declared in Somalia, the United Nations (UN) says the underlying crisis however has not improved and even more appalling outcomes are only temporarily averted.
According to the IPC report, nearly 5.6 million people across Somalia are currently experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity. This includes 214,000 people classified in catastrophic conditions. The situation is expected to deteriorate between January and March 2023, when 6.4 million people across Somalia will face high levels of acute food insecurity. Of these, 322,000 are expected to be in famine conditions.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says, while famine thresholds have not been surpassed in the country, the situation remains extremely alarming, and humanitarian assistance must be sustained over time and improved, as famine is a strong possibility from April to June 2023 and beyond if assistance is not sustained and if the 2023 April to June rains fail as current forecasts indicate.
The IPC report shows Somalia’s food crisis will further deepen and widen, with nearly 8.3 million people across Somalia experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity in this period, including 2.7 million people expected to be in emergency levels. The number of people who are expected to experience catastrophic food shortages is going to rise from 214,000 to 727,000 people. Famine is projected to occur in parts of Bay Region and several other regions are expected to face increased risk of famine.
People in Somalia are facing one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world. The crisis is driven by conflict, food insecurity, political instability, climatic shocks and economic decline. An estimated 3 million Somalis are internally displaced, and about 700,000 people have fled to neighboring countries. Almost 8 million people - nearly 50 per cent of the population - are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance or humanitarian protection.
In 2022, more than 755,000 people in Somalia have been forced to flee from their homes due to severe drought, bringing the total to 1 million displaced people since January 2021, when the drought began. Five consecutive seasons of failed rains, increasing global food prices, and persistent armed conflict and instability have driven Somalia’s population to the brink of disaster. Humanitarian organizations say international support can head off a devastating famine and prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is a multi-partner initiative for improving food security and decision-making. By using the IPC classification and analytical approach, governments, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society and other relevant actors, work together to determine the severity and magnitude of acute and chronic food insecurity, and acute malnutrition situations in a country, according to internationally-recognized scientific standards. The IPC acute food insecurity scale consists of five classifications: minimal/none, stressed, crisis, emergency, catastrophe/famine.
Further information
Full text: IPC Somalia Acute Food Insecurity Snapshot October 2022 – June 2023, released December 13, 2022
https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Somalia_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Snapshot_Oct2022Jun2023.pdf
Full text: IPC Famine Review Report Somalia December 2022, released December 13, 2022
https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Famine_Review_Report_Somalia_Dec2022.pdf
Full text: The humanitarian situation in Somalia remains extremely serious: assistance must be sustained and improved to continue to prevent famine, OCHA press release, published December 13, 2022
https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/humanitarian-situation-somalia-remains-extremely-serious-assistance-must-be-sustained-and-improved-continue-prevent-famine