Drought-Hit Somalia One Step Closer To Famine

New Study Shows Alarming Increase In Severe Malnutrition Among Children

April 20, 2017…Life-threatening child malnutrition rates continue to rise to alarming levels in drought affected Somalia, a new study from Save the Children reveals.

The survey results found “very critical” levels of severe malnutrition in two of six districts assessed in some of the worst affected parts of Somalia, which could spell disaster for a country where livelihoods have already been decimated and the economy crippled by the drought.

Seven percent of all children under five in the districts of Badhan and Adado in Somaliland, an autonomous region of Somalia, are severely malnourished. The assessment also found exceptionally high rates of stunting in Hudur district, another part of Somalia heavily impacted by drought and an area devastated by the famine in 2011.

Less than 10 percent of children in Somalia are currently registered in a nutrition program according to the study, which warns that children could start dying “in the near future” unless immediate action is taken, including a major and rapid scaling up of nutrition outreach services.

“We are on the brink of a massive catastrophe in Somalia with the death of three quarters of the country’s livestock, a rapid increase of children suffering severe malnutrition and the depletion of water stores in dozens of communities,” said Patricia Erb, President and CEO of Save the Children in Canada.

“Despite April traditionally being the wettest month of the year for much of the country, it has barely rained so far. Our fear is that if this pattern continues and the rainy season fails again, we could start seeing children dying in significant numbers.

“Canada and the international community has stepped up in recent months, however this crisis is so large that the need constantly outweighs the help provided. Even more funding is needed to address malnutrition directly, including improving access to food and water to prevent it in the first place. And regardless of whether the rains come or not, children must be treated for malnutrition now.”

Save the Children’s mobile health teams in Somaliland also reported a dramatic increase in the proportion of children they have screened who are moderately or severely malnourished, rising from 11 percent to 26 percent between February and March.

“I was in Somaliland two weeks ago, and the images of devastation stay with me. The last two or three months have been brutal right across Somalia. We saw dead animals everywhere, and there is no water in the riverbeds or streams, no green in the vegetation. There simply isn’t any pasture left in many parts,” Erb continued.
“People have run out of water and children are getting sick all the time. I spoke to mothers and families who have exhausted every option they had and are now left to wait for help and pray for rain. Women and children typically bear the heaviest burden in terms of the day to day struggle to find water and food. The desperation in their eyes was inescapable.

“As is often the case in emergencies, it’s the children who are hardest hit. Of the six million people in a state of emergency across Somalia, half are children, struggling to survive without enough food, water and access to health care. There is nothing more heartbreaking to see than a child suffering from severe malnutrition.”

Save the Children’s assessment data will help form a wider analysis by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

“The way things are going, famine is a distinct possibility for Somalia. It is an absolute travesty that this is even conceivable when just six years ago this same region was hit by a famine that killed over 250,000 people,” Erb added.

While drought has left 6.2 million people – more than half of the population of Somalia – in need of immediate lifesaving assistance, a further 8.3 million drought affected people in Kenya and Ethiopia are also need of urgent help.

In the last three months alone, Save the Children has reached more than half a million people just in Somalia, trucking water to the most vulnerable communities, activating dozens of mobile health teams who work across hundreds of drought affected communities assessing and treating malnutrition, and providing other vital hygiene, sanitation and medical support.

ENDS

Notes to editor:

• The study used the Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) method of assessment, finding GAM rates of between 18 and 27 percent in five out of the six districts. Below 5 percent is considered acceptable.

• Save the Children has categorized the drought in Somalia at its highest level, Category One.