Famine spreads with 750,000 at risk of death in Somalia alone
Baku, September 5 (AZERTAC). Famine spread to a sixth southern Somali region and will likely extend further in the coming four months with 750,000 people at risk of death, the United Nations said on Monday.
Tens of thousands of people have already died, over half of whom are children," according to a statement from the UN food security analysis team for Somalia, which said the Bay region was now declared a famine zone.
"In total, four million people are in crisis in Somalia, with 750,000 people at risk of death in the coming four months in the absence of adequate response."
The Bay area, which includes the major town of Baidoa, is a stronghold of hardline Islamist Shebab insurgents who have imposed severe restrictions on aid into the areas they control.
"Assuming current levels of response continue, famine is expected to spread further over the coming four months," the statement from UN Somalia Food Security Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) said.
Famine was first declared in the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of southern Somalia in July.
Several areas are at severe risk of tipping over into famine conditions, it added.
"An additional 50,000 people in cropping areas of Gedo and Juba and pastoral areas of Bakool face famine-level food deficits," the statement read.
Some 12.4 million people in the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda, are affected by the worst drought in decades in the region and are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN.
But war-torn Somalia is the hardest hit, with severely limited access especially in Shebab-controlled areas.
"The reality of providing aid in Somalia today is about as grim as it gets," Unni Karunakara, international president of the medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said in a statement.
"Our staff run a constant risk of being shot or abducted while they provide lifesaving medical assistance."
The UN said some 1.2 million people across Somalia received emergency food aid in August, and hope to boost delivery to reach 4 million people by the end of September.
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