Renson Mwakandana
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian director, warned on Monday that famine is “at the door” in some regions of Somalia.
He claimed to have solid evidence that famine will strike areas of south-central Somalia between October and December during a news appearance in the country’s capital, Mogadishu.
This follows his visit to Baidoa in Somalia’s South-West state, the region most severely impacted by the current drought raging over East Africa.
As a result of the ongoing drought, which humanitarian organizations say has resulted in the relocation of more than one million people and is the Horn of Africa’s worst in 40 years, the city has experienced an inflow of individuals who have lost everything after four unsuccessful wet seasons.
The UN World Food Program estimates that 22 million people in the area are in danger of experiencing acute hunger, and as a result, individuals in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia are struggling to put food on the table.
Complex factors contributed to this catastrophe, and they don’t seem to be getting better. A major worry has been climate change, and things have only become worse as a result of the war in Ukraine, the crises in Ethiopia and Somalia, and the rise in food prices.
