Starvation could kill more children in Somalia than devastating 2011 famine

More children could die from starvation in Somalia this year than during the devastating 2011 famine, the UK’s ambassador has warned, amid mounting concerns of a “once in a generation tragedy”.

The country is in the grip of an intense drought following three years of little or no rainfall. Government data suggests the harvest in January was the country’s third-lowest in 15 years, while one million livestock have died from starvation or diseases.

But the situation has also been exacerbated by domestic insecurity, protracted elections, major funding gaps and rapid inflation.

Driven in part by the war in Ukraine, the price of wheat has jumped by 45 per cent and oil by 40 per cent. Meanwhile, water shortages have pushed the cost of a 200 litre jerry can up 400 per cent since the start of the year, from around $1 to $5.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Kate Foster, the British ambassador to Somalia, said this price hike was disastrous for families who already spend between 60 and 80 per cent of their income on food, warning that the situation was “really rapidly deteriorating”.

She added that there are already “pockets of famine” in six regions, affecting roughly 81,000 people, while the latest projections suggest 350,000 children could die of malnutrition and disease in the next few months.

This would be a higher death toll than seen in 2011, when a quarter of a million people died – half of them children.

 “It really feels worse than 2011,” said Ms Foster, who then worked on the famine response for Save the Children. “The estimation is that now, there are already twice as many children who are severely acutely malnourished as there were at the same point in 2011.

 “I think that’s the figure – combined with the UN prediction [that] 350,000 children under five will die in the coming months if the scale of support doesn’t change dramatically – which really outlines the scale of this.”

‘Worst climate-induced emergency in history’

Her warnings come as the UN’s aid chief suggested that the Horn of Africa – which includes Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia – is on the brink of “a once-in-a-generation tragedy”, with 14 million people facing severe food security.

At an event organised by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Tuesday, Martin Griffiths suggested that “close to 2 million children across the region [are] at risk of starving to death”.

 “For the first time in 40 years, people are facing the almost certain possibility of a fourth consecutive poor rainy season,” he said. “If this season’s rains do indeed fail, as projected, the Horn of Africa may experience one of the worst climate-induced emergencies in its history.”

In Somalia, the crisis has already pushed at least 700,000 people to leave their homes in search of food and water, while there have been “some localised conflicts around access to the remaining grazing spots and water”.

The presence of al-Shabab has also complicated the response, meaning aid agencies cannot access large areas, including some famine-affected districts. According to Bloomberg, the Islamist militant group is now stepping in to help some communities cope, though some analysts warn this could actually bolster its ranks and intensify violence.

‘Taking food from the hungry to feed the starving’

At the OCHA roundtable the UK Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford, announced £25 million of new funding aimed at helping avert a widespread famine, on top of £14.5m pledged earlier this year.

Ms Foster said the money is “absolutely focused on a narrow set of life-saving activities,” adding that aid agencies and donors are having to make difficult decisions due to limited resources amid a “challenging global financial picture”.

So far, just four per cent of the $1.4 billion outlined in the UN’s Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia to respond to the famine has been committed.

“I thought it was a powerful phrase that was used by the head of the World Food Programme here… when he said that the reality is, ‘we’re taking food from the hungry to be able to feed the starving’,” said Ms Foster. I think that’s a fairly good framing [of the situation].”

But Alison Griffin, head of humanitarian campaigns at Save the Children UK, said that while the latest UK funding is a “step in the right direction”, it remains “nowhere near enough” to address increasingly desperate situations across the Horn of Africa.

 “Along with other aid agencies we’re calling on the UK Government to urgently commit £750m of new funding to ensure that we do not see a repeat of 2011,” Ms Griffin said.

 “At the same time it is imperative that the UK Government work with the international community to ensure that we put a stop to this deadly cycle which sees swathes of the Horn of Africa repeatedly fall into severe drought.”

Mohamed Abdi, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Somalia Country Director, added: “The scale of the crisis in Somalia, and the level of human suffering, is truly staggering… to avert a tragedy and save lives the world must act now – Somalia requires a massive injection of support.”