The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), on Thursday, appealed for $272.3 million to provide humanitarian services to three million people in Somalia, including two million children in 2023.
The UN agency said the funds would help it expand the delivery of essential multisectoral services.
The services will focus on hard-to-reach areas and will strengthen its leadership role in cluster coordination.
“The harsh drought disproportionately affected children in Somalia.
“About 1.8 million children under age five are expected to experience wasting by July 2023,” UNICEF said in its humanitarian appeal update released in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
It said it’s Level-three Scale-Up Activation for the Horn of Africa, in conjunction with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee System-Wide Scale-Up, aims to respond in Somalia to an estimated 7.7 million people.
These include 5.1 million children, 4.4 million girls and women who will need humanitarian assistance in 2023.
These needs stem from the impact of the ongoing drought, conflict, displacement and the COVID-19 pandemic among other infectious diseases.
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Somalia is currently experiencing a historic dry spell with a predicted fifth consecutive failed rainy season.
The country did not witness this is situation in more than four decades.
More than 90 per cent of the country is experiencing severe to extreme drought conditions.
These have combined increased conflict and high food prices to worsen the humanitarian situation, the UN said.
According to UNICEF, an estimated 6.7 million people are experiencing severe food insecurity.
These include 2.2 million people who are estimated to be in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phase-4 (emergency levels) and at least 300,000 people in Phase-5 (catastrophe levels).
It said the drought, insecurity and conflict have further degraded children’s access to education and their protective environment. (Xinhua)
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