Horn of Africa hunger crisis pushes millions to the brink
Story | 24 May 2023
Emergency
Somalia faces catastrophic hunger, with the country devastated by the extreme drought in the Horn of Africa.
A total of 6.5 million people face acute food insecurity amid the driest conditions in 40 years, following five consecutive failed rainy seasons. Drought is compounding the impacts of other recurrent climate shocks, persistent insecurity and instability. A total of 1.84 million children under 5 face acute malnutrition. A total of 478,000 of these face severe malnutrition and may be at risk of dying unless they receive immediate treatment. Huge numbers of people have been forced to leave their homes, with over 1.5 million drought-driven displacements since the start of the climate crisis.
If the March to June rainy season also fails, purchasing power continues to decline and humanitarian relief does not reach those most in need, the risk of famine will continue to loom over some areas of Somalia. The last famine, declared in 2011, killed a quarter of a million people.
In the face of this crisis, WFP expanded its emergency food and nutrition response to reach a record number of over 4 million people by the end of February. However, a funding of US$407 million for life-saving programmes means that WFP will struggle to sustain this scale-up. The gap between hunger and the humanitarian response is widening. Immediate action is needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.