110 dead from hunger in Somalia in past 48 hours of drought

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FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 file photo, malnourished baby Ali Hassan, 9-months-old, left, is held by his mother Fadumo Abdi Ibrahim, who fled the drought in southern Somalia, at a feeding center in a camp in Mogadishu, Somalia. Somalia's prime minister said Saturday, March 4, 2017 that 110 people have died from hunger in the past 48 hours in a single region as a severe drought threatens millions of people. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)
FILE – In this Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 file photo, malnourished baby Ali Hassan, 9-months-old, left, is held by his mother Fadumo Abdi Ibrahim, who fled the drought in southern Somalia, at a feeding center in a camp in Mogadishu, Somalia. Somalia’s prime minister said Saturday, March 4, 2017 that 110 people have died from hunger in the past 48 hours in a single region as a severe drought threatens millions of people. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s prime minister said Saturday that 110 people have died from hunger in the past 48 hours in a single region – the first death toll announced in a severe drought threatening millions of people across the country.

Somalia’s government declared the drought a national disaster on Tuesday. The United Nations estimates that 5 million people in this Horn of Africa nation need aid, amid warnings of a full-blown famine.

Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire spoke during a meeting with the Somali National Drought Committee. The death toll he announced is from the Bay region in the southwest part of the country alone.

Somalia was one of four regions singled out by the U.N. secretary-general last month in a $4.4 billion aid appeal to avert catastrophic hunger and famine, along with northeast Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. All are connected by a thread of violent conflict, the U.N. chief said.

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, was expected to visit Somalia in the next few days.

Thousands have been streaming into Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in search of food aid, overwhelming local and international aid agencies. Over 7,000 internally displaced people checked into one feeding center recently.

The drought is the first crisis for Somalia’s newly elected Somali-American leader, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Previous droughts and a quarter-century of conflict, including ongoing attacks by extremist group al-Shabab, have left the country fragile. Mohamed has appealed to the international community and Somalia’s diaspora of 2 million people for help.

About 363,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia “need urgent treatment and nutrition support, including 71,000 who are severely malnourished,” the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network has warned.

Because of a lack of clean water in many areas, there is the additional threat of cholera and other diseases, U.N. experts say. Some deaths from cholera already have been reported.

The government has said the widespread hunger “makes people vulnerable to exploitation, human rights abuses and to criminal and terrorist networks.”

The U.N. humanitarian appeal for 2017 for Somalia is $864 million to provide assistance to 3.9 million people. But the U.N. World Food Program recently requested an additional $26 million plan to respond to the drought.

The Associated Press

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6 responses to “110 dead from hunger in Somalia in past 48 hours of drought”

  1. Danny Farah Avatar
    Danny Farah

    These people are dying of hunger and the UN want to wait few days before they meet. then decide a month later to send aids. This is all happening while the Congo dictator is lavishing on his birthday for a week.. lots of food and cake while people in Africa are dying.. these dictators are ruthless and they could careless about their people. we need to stop legitimizing these dictators and freeze their assets when we can.

  2. (off topic): Saudi Arabia is considering the deportation of five million illegal migrants, that is, 20 percent of the country’s population https://lenta.ru/news/2017/03/12/go_home/

  3. (off topic) Afghanistan asked Russia to help with the restoration of economic facilities https://lenta.ru/news/2017/03/13/afgan/

  4. (off topic) Russia spent a third of a trillion rubles (5592750900.000 US Dollars) to destroy chemical weapons https://lenta.ru/news/2017/03/13/chemical/

  5. An unidentified combat helicopter attacked a ship carrying refugees from Somalia off the coast of Yemen.
    According to the primary data, as a result of the attack, at least 31 people were killed. 80 refugees managed to escape

  6. Red Cross warns on mass hunger in Yemen, Somalia http://www.reuters.com/article/africa-hunger-idUSL5N1GZ26G

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