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Somalia

Oxfam responds to latest analysis from IPC on the situation in Somalia

In response to the latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Classification System (IPC) on the situation in Somalia, Parvin Ngala, Oxfam’s Regional Director for the Horn, East, and Central Africa said:

“The situation in Somalia is rapidly deteriorating and the warning that famine is expected as early as October highlights the increasingly narrow window of time to reduce the accelerating loss of life and prevent further suffering.

“Despite numerous alarms raised over the past two years, nearly 6.7 million people are facing very high levels of hunger with nearly 2 million acutely malnourished children – over 50 percent of the total population of children in Somalia. And if the world does not act now, at least 300,000 people will be in famine or similar conditions before the end of the year. The number of people caught up in the crisis is almost double the number of those affected by the famine in 2011 that killed over a quarter of a million people – half of them children under the age of five.

“Humanitarian assistance has helped save lives, but due to low levels of funding this assistance is now expected to decrease sharply and the situation worsen significantly.

“Across East Africa, Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are facing the worst drought in 40 years and South Sudan is suffering a fifth consecutive year of severe flooding. On top of ongoing conflict, the COVID-19 economic fallout and surging food prices, these climatic shocks have decimated crops and livestock and eroded people’s ability to cope.

“With the dire situation in Somalia likely to worsen further into 2023 as an unprecedented fifth consecutive failed rainy season is predicted; warnings can no longer be ignored. World leaders and the international community must act now.”

Over 40 NGOs warn of a deepening humanitarian crisis in Somalia and urge donors to urgently fund the UN appeal

7.7 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, as 98% of Somalia’s humanitarian appeal remains severely underfunded

Oxfam, together with over 40 NGOs representing the Somali NGO Consortium urged donors to immediately fund the current the current UN humanitarian appeal for Somalia, in order to prevent a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe. 

In an open letter to donors and the international community the signatories said:

We, the undersigned organisations, are deeply concerned for the lives of millions of Somalis facing a severe food crisis and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. We call upon all donors including institutional donors, corporates, foundations, and individual philanthropic donors to urgently fund the current UN humanitarian appeal in order to respond to the escalating drought crisis in Somalia before it is too late.

Currently, 98 percent of the UN humanitarian appeal for Somalia of 1.46 billion USD has yet to be met and remains severely underfunded.

7.7 million people in various locations across Somalia are currently witnessing a shocking increase in humanitarian needs as the rains fail for a third consecutive season – possibly the worst drought in 40 years. Of those, an estimated 3.2 million people – in 66 out of 74 districts – are already suffering from a worsening drought. 1.4 million people will also be displaced in the coming months, congesting already overcrowded displacement camps and generating conflict over resources. Moreover, diarrhoea is spreading due to lack of sufficient clean water and hygiene services.

Malnutrition is on the rise across the most drought-affected states, as experts warn of a risk of famine as predictions for the next rainy season are worrying. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations reports that the drought severity has notably worsened since December 2021 and will continue to worsen. Local humanitarian leaders are saying that they have never seen such a drought; and that their biggest concern is an imminent famine if funds are not immediately received.

Despite this unprecedented need, only less than 2% (26.3m USD) of the total UN humanitarian appeal needed to respond to the Somali crisis has been funded to date.  A few donors have contributed so far: CERF (mostly Norway), the US Government, Germany, the EU, Canada, and Switzerland. Whilst we acknowledge that the overall humanitarian appeal tends to increase as the year progresses, we know that financing early prevents a catastrophe from happening and a costly response later and saves lives. The next few months are thus extremely critical to urgently respond to the needs on the ground.

In 2011, despite the warnings, the international humanitarian system did too little too late and an estimated 260.000 people lost their lives to a famine.  We must make sure that history does not repeat itself. By contrast, in 2017 the international community responded in force to the same indicators and averted widespread disaster, the same scale of response is needed again.

We, local and international NGOs, stand ready to increase our response to meet the need. Many of us, thanks to donor support and private funding, are already scaling up our existing programming to better meet the people’s needs. However, we cannot respond to the escalating crisis without a sharp increase in funds by donors.

We urge you to increase your commitments, cut and/or reduce red tapes to release and allocate funds. The time to act is now.

Signatories

  1. ACTED
  2. ActionAid International Somaliland
  3. Action Against Hunger
  4. Aid Vision
  5. AVSI Foundation
  6. Candlelight for Environment, Education and Health
  7. CARE
  8. Catholic Relief Services
  9. Centre for Peace and Democracy (CPDD)
  10. Cesvi Fondazione (CESVI)
  11. CISP – International Committee for the Development of Peoples
  12. Danish Refugee Council
  13. Development Action Network – DAN
  14. Development Now Initiative
  15. Diakonia
  16. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe -DKH
  17. GREDO
  18. Humanitarian Translation for Somalia
  19. International Medical Corps (IMC)
  20. International Rescue Committee (IRC)
  21. Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)
  22. Juba Foundation
  23. Life & Peace Institute (LPI)
  24. MEDAIR
  25. Mercy Corps
  26. Nagaad Women’s Network
  27. Nexus Platform
  28. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
  29. Oxfam
  30. Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH)
  31. SSWC
  32. SADO
  33. Save the Children
  34. Social Empowerment Rehabilitation and Development Org. (SERDO)
  35. Somali Lifeline Organization (SOLO)
  36. Somali Women and Child Care Association (SWCCA)
  37. Sustainable Development & Peace building Initiatives (SYPD)
  38. Taakulo Somali Community (Taakulo)
  39. Volunteers for Relief and Development  (VRD)
  40. WASDA
  41. Welthungerhilfe (WHH)
  42. World Concern
  43. World Vision International
  44. ZamZam Foundation

 

Notes

Figures on humanitarian need and hunger levels are based on latest  UN OCHA in Somalia website  and UNICEF Somalia Humanitarian Situation Report No. 11  as of November 2021

Oxfam and Save the Children “Dangerous Delay” report was published in 2011: https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/a-dangerous-delay-the-cost-of-late-response-to-early-warnings-in-the-2011-droug-203389/  

Contact information

Spokespersons are available for interviews. Please contact:

In Somalia : Abdi Azizi  | Senior Advocacy & Communications Officer | [email protected]

Parts of Somalia hit by the driest season in 40 years as climate-fueled drought worsens

Nearly 90% of Somalia is now in a severe drought, following three consecutive failed rain seasons. Some areas facing their driest season in 40 years. Nearly 3.5 million people are already acutely food insecure and millions more are now at risk of going hungry by the beginning of next year.

With no respite in sight, pastoralists’ chance for planting next season’s crops or finding grazing land for livestock is vanishing.

“People in Jubaland in the South, Gedo, Mudug, Nuugal, Bari, Toghdheer and Sool have been the hardest hit. Some have already experienced intense drought for more than a year and have had to watch their livestock, crops and savings perish in front of their eyes. They urgently need lifesaving water, food and cash,” said Amjad Ali, Oxfam Country Director in Somalia.

Many farmers and pastoralists have told Oxfam harrowing stories of how the drought has devastated their lives. Maryan Abdulaahi, a woman farmer living at the outskirt of Dudumaale village said:

“We did not receive rain for two seasons. Our livestock and own lives are in danger. In Dudumaale we use to fetch water from berkeds [traditional Somali water cisterns], but all berkeds are empty right now. The drum of water costs [USD] $4 which we cannot afford.”

Most natural water sources have dried up, pushing up the price of potable water. The price of a 200-liter water drum jumped above the five-year average by 45 percent in Gaalkacyo, Mudug Region, 70 percent in Jilib, Middle at Juba Region, and 172 percent in Garowe, Nugaal Region, last October.

Persistent climate-fueled drought, compounded by ongoing conflict, locusts and Covid-19, has fueled hunger in Somalia and will leave 7.7 million people – nearly half the population – in urgent need of humanitarian assistance by 2022. This is a 30% rise since 2021. Somalia already ranks highest in the world Global Hunger Index with over half its population suffering from extremely alarming levels of hunger and malnutrition.

Khadra Yusuf Saleban, 48-year-old displaced woman from Bali-docol camp said: “I have many fears about [having no] water and food for my children and my parents. Our livestock is the backbone of our life. I lost it all in the last drought. Without water and food there will be death to our livestock and to our families, particularly children and elderly.”

Oxfam and partners have already reached nearly 185,000 of the most vulnerable people across the country, with clean water and sanitation, food and rehabilitation programs.

Aydrus Daar, Executive Director of WASDA, one of Oxfam’s local partner organisations, said:

“I have been involved in droughts since 1991 and I have never seen a drought that has impacted people as badly as has this one. Many pastoralists have lost 100% of their livestock. This has never occurred in living history. Our biggest concern is an imminent famine.”

“In the 2011 drought crisis an estimated 50,000–100,000 people lost their lives. Despite the warnings, the international humanitarian system did too little too late. We must make sure that history does not repeat itself. We must act now. More than a third of the humanitarian appeal for Somalia this year is unfunded,” said Amjad Ali, Country Director of Oxfam in Somalia.

To help prevent a worsening catastrophe, Oxfam and partners aim to double the number of people reached, providing the most vulnerable in South Central Somalia, Somaliland, and Puntland, with lifesaving water, food and cash in the next six months. Oxfam also aims to help communities rebuild their lives and adapt to the cyclical expected climate disasters.

Oxfam urgently needs $15 million to help boost its humanitarian response in Somalia and save lives.

Notes

Threat of four famines in 2017 “a catastrophic betrayal of our common humanity”

The world stands on the brink of an unprecedented four famines in 2017 due to a catastrophic failure of the global community to uphold its obligations to the most vulnerable of people. Oxfam today calls on donors to take immediate action to help as many as 20 million people now at risk of starvation.

Famine was declared this week in parts of South Sudan. In northern Nigeria it is likely that some 400,000 people living in areas cut off from aid are already suffering famine. Both Yemen and Somalia stand on the brink. The primary driver of these crises is conflict, though in Somalia it is drought.

Donor countries have failed to adequately support efforts to resolve these conflicts and, in Yemen, are actually fuelling the conflict through arms sales. They now have a moral obligation to meet the $2.1 billion needed for a humanitarian response at the required scale. They need to find political answers to the causes of the collapse of these countries into such catastrophic levels of suffering.

Oxfam International’s Humanitarian Director Nigel Timmins said: “Famine does not arrive suddenly or unexpectedly. It comes after months of procrastination and ignored warnings. It is a slow agonizing process, driven by callous national politics and international indifference. It is the ultimate betrayal of our common humanity.

“Half-hearted responses to UN appeals have short-changed the aid effort to save people’s lives. This must not continue. Governments need to act now to fully fund the aid effort.

“The famine already gripping parts of South Sudan will spread across the country if not more is done. Famine may be imminent in Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria but it is not yet inevitable If we act now with a massive injection of aid, backed with diplomatic clout and driven by the imperative to save lives, we can prevent a catastrophic loss of life. Without an urgent injection of cash, the humanitarian system will not be able to cope and many more people will die.”

Money is needed now because a hunger crisis can rapidly deteriorate.  As a crisis unfolds malnutrition and mortality rates rise exponentially, rather than steadily.  After a certain tipping point, further rapid deterioration becomes likely. Assistance must be given now before people become dangerously hungry and have exhausted the last of their efforts to feed their families.

Responding to severe malnutrition requires significant humanitarian infrastructure, such as feeding and health centers. They cannot be spirited out of nowhere. People at the sharp end of these crises cannot wait.

Oxfam is calling for immediate humanitarian and political action including:

More food and life-saving support
Opening the areas that people can move safely to reach aid – and for humanitarian agencies to reach them in turn – including suspending all military operations that block this kind of access and safe movement
Protection of civilians in all military action.
Committing to respond earlier to warning signs of future crises before they escalate
Building people’s ability to cope better with future crises. Even without conflict, these countries will remain vulnerable to future food crisis
In Somalia, 2.9 million people face acute food security ‘crisis’ and ‘emergency’ levels. This could tip into famine if the April-June rains fail, their ability to buy food declines and people do not receive humanitarian support.

In Nigeria, over 5 million people are in food crisis, and this is projected to reach 5.7 million by June 2017. There is a strong likelihood that at least 400,000 people could already be experiencing famine-like conditions and that this could rise to up to 800,000 over the course of 2017 if humanitarian assistance cannot be delivered.

In South Sudan, 100,000 people are facing starvation now and a further 1 million people are classified as being on the brink of famine in Unity State.

In Yemen, 7 million people are just one step away from famine, and 10 million people are severely hungry. This is largest hunger emergency in the world. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is reporting that wheat stocks for the country will run out in April.

Oxfam is already helping over a million people in Yemen, more than 600,000 in South Sudan, over 200,000 in Nigeria and an assessment mission has just returned from northern Somalia where it plans to begin a response to the drought.

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