The United Nations, humanitarian partners and the Somali government have Tuesday released the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for Somalia, which seeks US$1.6 billion to help 5.2 million of the 6.9 million people in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance and protection this year. Although a historic multi-year drought ended in 2023 and Somalia successfully averted famine, humanitarian needs in the country remain high.
Somalia
International donor funding to alleviate hunger in the world's neediest countries plummeted in 2023, despite exacerbating global food insecurity reaching record highs, aid agencies warn. Humanitarian appeals for the 17 countries bearing the brunt of food insecurity suffered a staggering funding gap of 65 percent last year, up 23 percent from 2022, according to an analysis released this week by the humanitarian organization Action Against Hunger.
With nearly 1.2 million people in Somalia already affected by heavy rains and flooding and more expected, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has released US$25 million on Thursday to help people in the country brace against the impact of these disasters. OCHA reported Wednesday that torrential rains and floods have displaced some 335,000 men, women and children from their homes.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warn that acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 18 hunger hotspots – comprising a total of 22 countries or territories including two regions – during the period from November 2023 to April 2024.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has announced Wednesday that the number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence and human rights violations globally is estimated at more than 114 million at the end of September. According to a new UNHCR report, the main drivers of forced displacement in the first half of 2023 were: war in Ukraine and conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar; a combination of drought, floods and insecurity in Somalia; and a prolonged humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Insecurity persists in Somalia, with attacks by extremist group Al-Shabaab and fighting in the Laascaanood (Las Anod) region taking a heavy toll on civilians, the UN envoy for the country told the UN Security Council on Thursday. While humanitarian needs in Somalia remain high, improved access to water and pasture has alleviated the impact of the severe and protracted historic drought, she said.
Multiple over-lapping crises are impeding global efforts to tackle hunger, according to the 2023 Global Hunger Index (GHI) released Thursday, which shows that hunger levels are at “serious” or “alarming” levels in 43 countries. The report, which is jointly published by the international humanitarian organization Concern Worldwide and the German charity Welthungerhilfe, finds progress against hunger worldwide has largely stalled since 2015.
Children in Africa are among the most at risk of the impacts of climate change but are neglected by the key climate financing flows required to help them adapt, survive and respond to the climate crisis, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned. According to a UNICEF report released Friday, children in 48 out of 49 African countries assessed are categorized between medium-high and extremely high risk of the impacts of climate change. The report found children living in the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea, Somalia and Guinea-Bissau are the most vulnerable.
As protracted and new armed conflicts have continued to rage in 2022, the number of children severely affected by hostilities has remained shockingly high at almost 19,000 children in 25 countries and the Lake Chad Basin region, according to a new UN report published Tuesday. While there were 27,180 grave violations verified overall, the conflicts with the highest numbers of children affected last year were in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Yemen.
Leading United Nations agencies, including the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), warn that millions of people in the greater Horn of Africa are trapped in an emergency hunger and health crisis driven by overlapping disasters, including climate change and conflict. WHO’s Greater Horn of Africa region includes the seven affected countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
The head of the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) has warned Thursday that conflict and climate change are pushing millions of Somalis to the brink of hunger, as the agency is running out of funds to help them. The longest drought on record has killed millions of livestock and decimated crops. It has recently given way to disastrous flash floods in the south of the country.
Acute food insecurity is set to increase in magnitude and severity in 18 hunger hotspots comprising a total of 22 countries, a new UN early warning report has found. The analysis issued Monday by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) calls for urgent humanitarian action to save lives and livelihoods and prevent starvation and death in countries where acute hunger is at a high risk of worsening from June to November 2023.
A toxic mix of conflict, severe drought and devastating floods has forced more than 1 million people in Somalia to flee their homes since the beginning of this year – a record rate of displacement for the country, reported the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Wednesday.
With the Horn of Africa facing the combined impacts of a historic drought, conflict and economic shocks, donors at a United Nations-backed pledging event today announced US$2.4 billion to provide life-saving and life-sustaining assistance for nearly 32 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia facing hunger. However, the humanitarian community requires $7 billion for humanitarian aid and protection for drought- and conflict-affected people this year.
190 million children in 10 African countries are at the highest risk from a convergence of three water-related threats – inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); related diseases; and climate hazards – according to a new analysis released Monday by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The triple threat was found to be most acute in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Somalia.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a Grade 3 Emergency Appeal for the Greater Horn of Africa region on Friday. The United Nations organization is asking for USD 178 million (EUR 167 million) to carry out urgent, life-saving health work in 2023 to help the Greater Horn region. WHO’s Greater Horn of Africa region includes the seven affected countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
Fighting in the area of Laascaanood (Las Anod), in the breakaway Somaliland republic, has escalated, with medical sources now saying at least 105 people have been killed in three weeks of clashes. According to the United Nations, more than 245,000 Somalis have been forced to flee their homes so far due to the ongoing violence in Somalia's Sool region.
More than 60,000 Somalis, mainly women and children, have fled to Ethiopia’s Somali region in the past few weeks to escape violent clashes and insecurity in the city of Laascaanood (Laas Caanood), in Somalia’s Sool region, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports. More than half of them arrived earlier this week, UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado Mur said Friday at a news conference in Geneva.
Somalia and the United Nations have appealed Wednesday for $2.6 billion (€ 2.4 billion) to aid millions of Somalis facing hunger as the country remains gripped by a record-setting drought. Somalia has been struggling against famine-like conditions that aid groups say are forcing thousands of people to flee from the countryside into cities seeking help.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says the number of children suffering dire drought conditions across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia has more than doubled in five months. According to a UNICEF statement Thursday, around 20.2 million children are now facing the threat of severe hunger, thirst and disease, compared to 10 million in July, as climate change, conflict, global inflation and grain shortages devastate the region.
The humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) has released its annual Emergency Watchlist Wednesday, highlighting the 20 countries most at risk of deteriorating humanitarian crises in 2023. This year, Somalia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan top the Watchlist, as East Africa faces the worst drought in decades and economic turmoil continues to compound needs in Afghanistan.
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.
Global solidarity is urgently needed to help vulnerable people in the Horn of Africa survive a rapidly unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, driven by the longest and most severe drought in recent history, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said in a joined statement on Monday. As the drought is set to run well into 2023, aid organizations must prepare now to continue their life-saving work in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya in response to extremely high humanitarian needs through to next year.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warns millions of people in the greater Horn of Africa will likely face a fifth consecutive season of insufficient rains. According to the United Nations agency the terrible long drought in the Horn of Africa is set to continue for another year, which will worsen the humanitarian crisis which is impacting millions of people who already have suffered the longest drought in 40 years.
A devastating drought in Somalia has reached unprecedented levels, as the one millionth person displaced by the drought was registered this week, according to displacement figures released jointly today by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). More than 755,000 people have been internally displaced in Somalia because of the severe drought this year, bringing the total figure to 1 million people since January 2021 when the drought began.
The German aid organization Welthungerhilfe warns that the number of people suffering from hunger is rising worldwide, and at the same time food and transport prices are exploding, so that the hunger crises are continuing to spread globally. According to the non-governmental organization (NGO), the situation has become particularly severe in the Horn of Africa, where 17 million people currently do not have enough food to eat. Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are experiencing the worst drought in 40 years.