In a new "call for help", the United Nations issued a "final alert" on Monday that Somalia is on the verge of famine threatening half the population, as a result of drought and the economic repercussions of the war in Ukraine, as well as the existing security turmoil in light of the ongoing attacks of the Al-Shabab movement linked to Al-Qaeda, and the United Arab Emirates responded The United Nations appealed to sisterly Somalia, and announced that it would extend a helping hand and send aid and humanitarian and relief aid, and pledged to provide more to confront drought and support food security.
From Mogadishu, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, who is currently in Somalia, launched an appeal for the international community to help the Horn of Africa country as signs of possible famine loom, such as widespread malnutrition, increasing child deaths, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people Drought affected areas.
This time, the United Nations has set a clear time frame for the potential disaster, with Griffiths noting that a possible famine may occur between the next October and December if there is no urgent international action to help Somalia cope with this situation.
And last week, the Somali authorities issued an urgent appeal to the international community to help the two million people at risk of food shortage out of the nearly 8 million Somalis affected by the drought. In late June, Save the Children warned the international community that Somalia was heading for a "catastrophic famine".
According to United Nations and Somali government figures, about 7.8 million of Somalia's total population (about 16 million) need food assistance. Last July, the Somali President's Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs and Drought Response, Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Shakur, confirmed that 300,000 Somalis are currently suffering from starvation.
In a report published last summer, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs revealed that 1.5 million Somali children suffer from malnutrition due to drought conditions, of whom 356,000 will face the risk of death due to acute malnutrition before the end of September.
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