Six areas of Somalia are now officially in famine with 750,000 people in those areas at risk of death in the coming months unless there is an urgent response. UNICEF estimates that tens of thousands of people have already died in Somalia, half of them children, with the situation likely to deteriorate further.
There are estimated to be 1.5 million children in the south of Somalia who need immediate humanitarian assistance. In Bay area, the newest region to be declared as famine affected, malnutrition rates are nearly four times the WHO emergency threshold, with half of all children acutely malnourished.
As famine continues to spread in south Somalia it’s evident that this truly is a crisis for child survival, with millions of children in need of urgent help. In addition to a lack of food and water, malnourished children are susceptible to killer diseases including diarrhoea and pneumonia with epidemics of measles and malaria expected when the October rains come.
UNICEF works in every region in the south of Somalia through a network of 70 partners and deploys third party monitors to ensure that supplies reach children. The children’s agency recently organised the first relief flights in two years to land outside of the capital Mogadishu, with the objective being to provide aid in communities before people move on. For those who have already moved UNICEF is helping people at transit areas and within camps.
UNICEF also operates 800 feeding centres across Somalia, including 500 in the South, with the aim reach 17,000 severely malnourished children a month. UNICEF’s main area for scale up is blanket supplementary feeding, which means reaching every child and their family in target areas to cover the gap in food aid – a total of 200,000 families per month over the next six months.
Immunization campaigns are already underway with UNICEF planning to vaccinate two million children up to the age of 15 against measles in Somalia. In addition, UNICEF is extending the provision of safe water and access to sanitation to over 1.8 million people by drilling boreholes, water trucking and providing water vouchers.
UNICEF is making a big difference to people suffering in Somalia through a variety of support mechanisms including getting aid into the south of the country, immunising children against deadly diseases and providing clean water and sanitation.
Famine is expected to spread further by December 2011 in agropastoral and riverine areas of Gedo and Juba, and agropastoral areas of Middle Shabelle and Hiran.
