‘Somali political tension fuels humanitarian crisis’

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA. MARCH 9 2017. Recently arrived internally displaced women and children at a World Food Program center in Mogadishu, Somalia. Thousands of people have poured into the Somali capital over the past few weeks in search for food and water at the severe drought takes hold in remote rural regions. According to an United Nations February 2017 OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) report, famine could very soon be a reality in Somalia, largely due consecutive and severe drought. There are already worrying similarities to the situation in 2011, when 260,000 died. In the worst affected areas, chiefly rural communities, crops have been wiped out and livestock died, while communities are being forced to sell their assets, and borrow money and food to survive. Some 6.2 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. Of these, 3 million people cannot meet their daily food requirements and need urgent humanitarian assistance. UN humanitarian efforts, from UN agencies such as UN OCHA, World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF as well as on the ground NGO's, are all in overdrive mode providing a combination of food distribution, access and security as well as medical support and treatment.