[World Food Program] Executive Director David Beasley said countries in the Horn of Africa have faced “unprecedented climate impact” from years of drought, and the U.N. agency had been expecting to announce famine in Somalia before donors “stepped up in magnificent ways.”
“And we’ve been able to — I don’t know if the right word is ‘avert’ famine — but we definitely have postponed it,” he told The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. “We’ve been fortunate so far, given the climate shocks inside Somalia. But we’re not out of this yet.”
New York — The U.N. is appealing for $2.6 billion this year to assist 7.6 million of the most vulnerable Somalis who are facing acute hunger and possible famine from conflict, high food prices, and unprecedented drought.
“Famine is a strong possibility from April to June this year, and of course beyond, if humanitarian assistance is not sustained, and if the April to June rains underperform as currently forecast,” Adam Abdelmoula, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, told reporters in a video briefing.
The country, along with other parts of the Horn of Africa, is in the throes of historic drought after five consecutive failed rainy seasons.
Abdelmoula said nearly 6.4 million people are currently facing high levels of food insecurity and that is expected to rise to 8.3 million between April and June, including 727,000 of them who are expected to experience catastrophic hunger levels.
The US is doing all it can to avert a new famine in Somalia, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
“We’re doing everything possible to help to avert this but people die even when there’s not a famine so the work that we have to do is really continuing,” Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview Wednesday at Bloomberg’s Washington headquarters.
A quick update on this, 8 months later …
The AP:
Voice of America:
Bloomberg: