Somalia > Country Background and Current Challenges
The humanitarian disaster continuing in Somalia remains one of the worst in the world where the scale, magnitude and speed at which the crisis continues to deteriorate remains shocking. Somalia remains embroiled in conflict even as devastating drought continues in many areas of the country. One in six children under the age of five is acutely malnourished and one in 20 is moderately malnourished. The number of severely malnourished children is increasing in the rural areas as well as in the urban towns and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) settlements in many parts of Somalia. Persistent and deteriorating insecurity, including the targeting of aid agencies, has reduced humanitarian access even as the crisis escalates.
In South-Central Somalia, Middle Shabelle is among the regions suffering the greatest severity and depth of the rural crisis, where 50% of the rural population is under Humanitarian Emergency and another 95,000 in Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis, according to the Food Security Analysis Unit of Somalia. The poor deyr of 2008 rainfall deepened the ongoing drought in Middle Shabelle with further deterioration in rural areas expected. The nutrition situation in Middle Shabelle is critical with rates of global acute and severe acute malnutrition rates well above emergency levels for Shabelle agro- pastoralists. Access to basic health care, clean water and sanitation facilities play significant roles in the poor health and nutrition status among rural populations.
In Somaliland, the nutrition situation is also grave in some areas and continues to deteriorate especially in the urban and IDP areas. A high level of nutritional needs remain in Burao town, where 20,000 IDPs/urban poor are under Humanitarian Emergency while 65,000 urban dwellers and rural pastoralists/agro pastoralists are in Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis. Rural areas of of Togdheer region are expected to deteriorate due to poor rains. Increased prices of food and other basic commodities, currency devaluation, deteriorating livestock conditions, high levels of household debt, and continuing drought/poor rainfall are all factors in the continuing crisis. As the 2008/2009 deyr rains were below normal in much of the Togdheer region, the situation is expected to deteriorate further.
More humanitarian assistance is urgently needed across the entire country to address needs created by both conflict and natural disaster. The drought affecting Somalia now is the worst in 10 years and the insecurity is at its highest levels in many years.