The United Nations announcement of a famine in Somalia is not something the global organization takes lightly. Famine represents the most serious food insecurity situation in the world today in terms of both scale and severity, according to aid organization, Oxfam.
“Famine does not arrive suddenly or unexpectedly,” said Oxfam’s Humanitarian Director Nigel Timmins. “It comes after months of procrastination and ignored warnings. It is a slow agonizing process, driven by callous national politics and international indifference.”
According to the UN’s humanitarian office, an estimated 5.0 million Somalis out of a population of 10 million are in need of humanitarian aid. There are about “363,000 acutely malnourished children in need of urgent treatment and nutrition support, including 71,000 who are severely malnourished,” said the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network, according to the Associated Press.
Years of drought and accompanying food insecurity have only exacerbated an already volatile political situation in Somalia. There is fighting among clans for access to scarce resources such as pasture and water, coupled with terror attacks by the al-Shabab militia, forcing millions of people to flee their home regions.
The political instability in Somalia has affected humanitarian organizations, forcing many to set up stations in safe locations, forcing starving people to travel great distances for help. The UN estimates one billion dollars will be needed to feed the over five million people impacted by the drought and food insecurity.
Today, Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu is overcrowded with thousands of refugees who have fled their homes and dead livestock and crops, searching for food and water. Many mothers carry their malnourished children in their arms, hoping they will find an aid station before death catches up, overwhelming local and international aid agencies.