Somalia appeals for urgent funding to assist people facing hunger
The impact of the flooding, desert locust and Covid-19 pandemic were again pushing up to 2.7 million people across Somalia towards a major humanitarian emergency
JOHANNESBURG, March 23 (ANA) – Somalia has called on international community, private sectors and civil society organisations to continue providing sufficient humanitarian funding to save lives and respond to the emerging signs of drought in the country.
In a statement dated Monday, Somalia said the impact of the flooding, desert locust and the Covid-19 pandemic meant up to 2.7 million people across the country were being pushed towards a major humanitarian emergency.
In addition to the compounding effects of poor and erratic rainfall distribution in 2020 and the projected poor performance of the 2021 Gu’ (April-June) rains already show signs of severe pre-drought conditions in Gedo region of Jubbaland, South West State, Puntland, Galmudug and Somaliland, pushing millions of people into acute food insecurity, with dire consequences for marginalized and displaced communities.
According to Somalia, since February 2021, the pandemic has worsened in the country.
As of March 6, the total Covid-19 cases recorded in Somalia reached 10,085, including 5,518 active cases, 4,498 recoveries and 429 deaths since the outbreak. Mogadishu remains the epic-center followed by Somaliland and Puntland.
In response to the new spikes of Covid-19 cases in recent weeks, the government has taken measures including banning all public gatherings, closure schools.
All government employees were instructed to work from home, except for critical senior government staff.
“The food insecurity situation is already extremely concerning and unless aid providers can immediately scale up aid operations in some pre-drought-hit areas, it will leave disastrous consequences for the millions of our people,” said the minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management in Somalia Khadija Mohamed Dirie.
“The Gu’ rain season is projected to be poor and below average and even very low in some areas, while water and food shortage continue to exacerbate the already existing fragilities.”
Dirie said that Somalia was also mobilising resources within its reach to provide emergency relief supplies and applauds aid agencies for prioritizing saving lives and ending need through community resilience-building.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Devereaux Morkel