MOGADISHU, Somalia — Six million people in Somalia are facing acute food insecurity while the World Food Program has only a tenth of the resources it had in 2022 when it helped avert famine in the drought- and conflict-stricken East African nation , the head of the U.N. agency told The Associated Press.
The consequences of the current food shortage, which is also a result of drought, conflict and the displacement of people , are seen at the Feynuus Health Center in Mogadishu’s Kahda district. Dozens of women carrying babies waited beneath a large tree or crowded along the veranda of the corrugated-metal facility seeking help. Inside, health workers placed children in a blue weighing sling, screened them for malnutrition, and distributed therapeutic food. Food and water became scarce, and conflict made it increasingly dangerous for the family to stay. Hassan now shares a makeshift shelter with her widowed mother and her mother’s four other children.
The WFP projects that 1.9 million children under age 5 in the country will suffer acute malnutrition this year, including nearly 500,000 who will require urgent treatment for severe acute malnutrition. Overall, around 30% of the population faces critical levels of food insecurity, the U.N. has said. The two women look for occasional work washing clothes in nearby neighborhoods to feed their household of 12.
Health workers treated the child she brought with a special nutrient-dense food, while Hassan said that her other children were also malnourished, but she wasn’t able to bring them to the center. Hassan fled the Lower Shabelle region four months ago after her husband died of malnutrition, she said. “We have witnessed children collapsing, because their families do not have enough food,” he said.
