Overview
Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for humanitarian workers, and an environment within which WFP has to constantly adjust and revise its operations. In early 2010, WFP was forced to suspend the delivery of food assistance in southern Somalia due to growing insecurity and threats and unacceptable demands from armed groups in the region.
WFP hopes that this suspension will be as brief as possible, but requires a change in position from the senior leadership of Al Shabab, who control most of southern Somalia, before any return to work is possible.
Although food and livestock production in the southern part of Somalia have improved leading to a reduction in the number of people in need of food assistance, WFP is extremely concerned for the welfare of people in this region we know to be in need of assistance.
Ongoing drought and civil unrest in central Somalia has left 70 percent of the population in the region in need of humanitarian assistance. Six consecutive seasons of below-average rainfall have decimated livestock herds and forced many pastoralists to gather in towns and villages in search of assistance.
Deepening drought in northern Somalia is also now of particular concern, with nearly 300,000 people in need of assistance.
One in six Somali children is acutely malnourished – a total of some 240,000 children – the highest acute malnutrition rates anywhere in the world. In south and central Somalia these rates are even higher, reaching one in every five children.
WFP Activities
WFP is currently targeting some 2.5 million people for food assistance across Somalia, although 625,000 of those are in areas where operations are currently suspended. In 2009, WFP reached 3.3 million people in Somalia with food supplies.
Last year, WFP doubled its capacity to reach moderately malnourished children and women with nearly 150,000 treated in WFP-supported supplementary feeding programmes. WFP is also piloting the use of specialised ready-to-use supplementary food – at the start of 2010, 18,000 children were receiving Supplementary Plumpy in Mogadishu, Somaliland and Puntland.
In the capital, WFP continues to provide 80,000 hot meals each day to mainly women and children through local and international partners.
Naval escorts continue to be necessary for ships carrying WFP food into Somalia, in order to protect against the threat of piracy. More than half a million tons of food have been escorted into Somali ports since the escort system began in late 2007.
Despite continuing insecurity in Mogadishu, WFP has continued work on the rehabilitation of Mogadishu port.
