The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has warned that it foresees a sharp rise in children under the age of 5 being admitted to IRC nutrition clinics across Somalia as 1 million people become displaced due to extreme drought in the country.
The IRC disclosed in a statement that one IRC clinic in Mogadishu recorded an 818% increase in admissions for severe malnutrition cases from February to June 2022.
The Committee is therefore, calling for the international community including world leaders and donors to immediately and urgently scale up funding and attention to the East Africa region.
Abukar Mohamud, IRC’s Deputy Director of Programs for Somalia said his outfit is extremely concerned about “the number of children we are seeing in our nutrition clinics has risen exponentially since the beginning of the year”.
He warned that if things continue on this trajectory, the consequences will be catastrophic because “So many people we meet in the clinics recount stories of loved ones dying of hunger as they flee their homes in search for food, water and pasture – we are clearly seeing a famine looming on the horizon.”
Over 200,000 living in extremes of hunger
IRC’s Deputy Director of Programs further indicated that Somalia is experiencing the worst of the crisis, with over 200,000 already living in the most extremes of hunger, but the challenge is regional.
Across East Africa, people are facing the worst drought in 40 years. By February 2023 up to 26 million people could experience extreme hunger if assistance isn’t drastically scaled up.
Abukar Mohamud warned that people are not just dying due to a lack of food but hunger means their weakened bodies cannot fight off diseases like diarrhea, measles or malaria, so death rates are high.
Children are particularly at risk and often die at double the rate of adults and those who survive will face ill health for the rest of their lives, Mohamud noted. The 2011 famine, saw over 250,000 people die of hunger – half of whom were children.
“We must be clear – if famine is declared, it will be too late for hundreds of thousands of people who are already living on so little food that they are in physical pain, their children’s growth has been stunted and they are leaving their homes in search of food.
“We need action now to bring the humanitarian response to scale and save lives. Donors should urgently channel funding to front line responders who can reach those most in need and deliver the interventions such as health programming, food and cash assistance, and clean water that people need to survive. Every day of delay will cause suffering to grow.”
Abukar Mohamud
East Africa is home to some of the IRC’s longest-running programs globally, with operations in Somalia for over 40 years, Kenya for 30 years and Ethiopia for 20 years. Today, over 2,000 IRC staff in the region are scaling up our programs to address the current drought and rising food insecurity, including expanding to new areas to meet severe needs.
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