(MENAFN) According to a report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Somalia suffered a devastating drought last year which led to the death of about 43,000 people, with 20,000 of them being children under five years old. The country has experienced five consecutive years of little or no rainfall, which has had catastrophic effects on its food security, leaving approximately half of the country's 17 million people in need of humanitarian aid.
The report indicates that the crisis is ongoing, with deaths in the first half of 2023 predicted to exceed 30,000. Somalia has had little respite from drought, with the UN previously warning of catastrophic harvest failures in 2016 and 2017 that left more than seven million people facing hunger, and over a million displaced.
The current crisis has led to at least 100,000 Somalis fleeing to neighboring Kenya and living in camps to escape both the drought and conflict in their country. The UN's Drought Impact Needs Assessment report on Somalia's humanitarian requirements during the previous crisis estimated the cost of alleviating the situation with aid to be at least $1.8 billion.
The Red Cross has described the current drought as the worst to hit Somalia in 40 years. While famine has temporarily been averted, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which sets the standard for determining the severity of a food crisis, reported last December that the situation was getting worse. The UN children's agency representative presenting the report in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, stated that the results of the study painted a bleak picture of the devastation caused by the drought on children and their families.
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