Famine declared as drought ravages Somalia
Updated July 21, 2011 08:37:34
Video: Drought pushes Somalia into official famine (Lateline)
Photo: Nearly half of the Somali population is now in crisis. (Thomas Mukoya)
The United Nations says famine has hit two parts of rebel-held Somalia due to a severe drought affecting more than 10 million people in the Horn of Africa.
"The United Nations declared today that famine exists in two regions of southern Somalia: southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle," a statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Somalia said.
Both are areas controlled by Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab insurgents.
"Across the country nearly half of the Somali population - 3.7 million people - are now in crisis, of whom an estimated 2.8 million people are in the south," the statement read.
"Consecutive droughts have affected the country in the last few years, while the ongoing conflict has made it extremely difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country."
The declaration comes as Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced another $30 million in aid to Africa to help counter famine, on top of $11 million in aid announced last week.
Mr Rudd will be travelling to affected regions in Somalia and Kenya later this week.
Australian aid will help provide food rations, shelter, clothing and clean water.
"We are on the cusp of an extraordinary humanitarian crisis in the world. This is the worst drought on the Horn of Africa for 60 years," Mr Rudd said.
Officials warned that unless urgent action was taken the areas afflicted by famine would grow.
"If we don't act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests and infectious disease outbreaks," said Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia.
Countries affected across the region include parts of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti, while the United States on Tuesday urged secretive Eritrea to reveal how severely it has been hit by the drought.
Famine implies having less than 2,100 kilocalories of food per day, acute malnutrition in more than 30 per cent of the children and two deaths per 10,000 people every day, according to the Integrated Phase Classification, a food security measure used by the UN and other relief agencies.
The Shebab expelled foreign aid groups two years ago, accusing them of being Western spies and Christian crusaders.
However, the UN last week airlifted in the first supplies since the group said it would lift restrictions on aid.
At least 500,000 children are at risk of death in the Horn of Africa, where high food prices and the driest years in decades have pushed many poor families into desperate need, UNICEF has said.
One in 10 children in parts of Somalia is at risk of starving to death, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said last week.
UNHCR has stepped up its work in southern Somalia, distributing aid to 90,000 people in recent days to areas including Mogadishu with another 126,000 due to receive supplies on Tuesday, spokesman Adrian Edwards told a media briefing.
