UN Declares State of Famine in Somalia, Says Tens of Thousands Dead from Starvation, Millions More At Risk

Tens of thousands of Somalis, mostly children, have died from acute malnutrition in the last three months and thousands will follow unless the international community takes urgent action say senior UN humanitarian officials.  

The world body today declared the food crisis had reached famine levels in Southern Somalia’s Lower Shabelle and Southern Bankool region, with acute malnutrition rates exceeding 30% in children and a daily crude death rate over two per 10 000 people. These levels have not been reached since the famine of the early 1990’s which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

UN Humanitarian coordinator Mark Bowden says child malnutrition rates in certain regions of the country are as high as 50% and warned other regions could soon reach such levels. 

“We still do not have all the resources for food, clean water, shelter and health services to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Somalis in desperate need,” Bowden told reporters in a video conference from Nairobi. “If we don’t act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests and infectious disease outbreaks.”

UN agencies estimate that over 60 percent of those in the Southern Region of Somalia (2.8 million people) are in urgent need of lifesaving assistance. Bowden says a rapid large scale humanitarian response could still save lives but so far, the international community’s response and financial commitment has been insufficient. 

“We estimate that $300 million is needed to address the famine in the next two months. This is a rough estimate and the number will probably increase as the number of people in need rises,” said Bowden.

Both EU and African states have been criticized for failing to recognize the severity of the situation and providing a substantial amount of assistance. Bowden says a drop in US assistance over the last two years, from Somalia’s largest international donor to the 7th or 8th largest, made the situation in the country worse.

US officials have blamed the decrease on Al Shabaab, a radical islamic militant group listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, who in the past has been accused of from commandeering aid and preventing humanitarian organizations from accessing those in need.

Last week Al- Shabaab announced it would allow humanitarian deliveries to parts of the country it controls, but US Ambassador Susan Rice expressed some doubt over their intentions.

“They [Al-Shabaab] say they’ve lifted [the restrictions] after two years of starving their own people. We’ll see if those restrictions are lifted on the ground. Neither the United States nor others in the international community are prepared to pay bribes or taxes to Al-Shabaab while it starves its own people. The question is whether Al-Shabaab will finally, in the face of a massive famine, allow its people to access the critical humanitarian resources that they need.”