UN says half of Somalia's population in need of aid assistance

By Daniel Ooko

NAIROBI, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Somalia faces its worse humanitarian crisis in 18 years amid an escalating civil war that threatens to push the country into chaos and lead to further deteriorations in the food security and nutrition status of the people, a UN report warned on Wednesday.

Results of a country-wide comprehensive inter-agency assessment, led by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FAO/FSNAU), confirm that the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is widespread and severe, with half of the population or an estimated3.76 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

"This signals a serious deterioration in the emergency food security and nutrition situation from earlier this year," says Cindy Holleman, the Chief Technical Advisor of the Somalia FSNAU.

"More worrying is that the escalating fighting and conflict is occurring in the same areas where we are now recording the greatest problems of food access and malnutrition. This will not only place additional burdens on the people already in crisis, but will also make it difficult for humanitarian relief to reach the vulnerable populations most in need of humanitarian and life saving interventions."

Most of the people in crisis or 75 percent of the 3.76 million people in need of assistance are concentrated in south and central Somalia -- the areas where the fighting is greatest and which are most inaccessible to humanitarian operations.

Given the context of an escalating civil war, FSNAU also issues an early warning for an even further deterioration in the humanitarian situation depending on the extent of the fighting in the coming weeks and months.

The report says about 300,000 children under the age of five are acutely malnourished all over Somalia, of whom 70,000 are severely malnourished and are at an increased risk of death without appropriate specialist care.

The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has skyrocketed since the start of the year, surging 40 percent to 1.42 million people, and the conflict's epicentre in central and southern Somalia has also faced droughts due to several consecutive seasons without adequate rainfall.

Holleman says that perhaps more worrying is that the increased fighting is occurring in the same areas that are now recording the greatest problems of food access and malnutrition and which are largely inaccessible to aid workers.

The report says emergency nutrition levels in several parts of the country have deteriorated further since January, with one in five children, up from one in six earlier this year, now acutely malnourished and one in 20 severely malnourished, among the highest rates in the world.

With livestock having been decimated, the new report notes that in these areas, up to 75 percent of the population can be characterized as living in a humanitarian emergency.

There is also an alarming deterioration in the food security and nutrition situation of the pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the north, caused by an emerging drought after two to three consecutive seasons of below normal rainfall.

These areas are suffering from consecutive seasons of severe water shortages, stressed livestock migration, high livestock off-take and high debt levels.

The situation is now deteriorating further, as indicated by increased malnutrition rates reaching the emergency level threshold of 15 percent in some areas.

An estimated 255,000 people are identified in Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis, while another 25,000 are in Humanitarian Emergency.

Unlike south and central Somalia, humanitarian access to these regions is good, therefore it is critical that these areas receive appropriate levels of emergency livelihood support and nutrition response, to prevent a further deterioration into humanitarian emergency.