Author: pr.web

MOGADISHU, Somalia – September 7, 2022 — Approximately 7.1 million people in Somalia are dealing with crisis levels of hunger and an official declaration of famine is predicted as soon as October without significant additional humanitarian response. This is according to a new report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee, a panel of independent international food security and nutrition experts. including Action Against Hunger, a global nonprofit leader in the movement to end hunger.

The worst drought in 40 years, conflict, and skyrocketing food and fuel prices have left 20.5 million people across the Horn of Africa in urgent need of food assistance. Somalia is particularly hard-hit.

According to Action Against Hunger and the new IPC report, in Somalia:

-The drought has killed an estimated three million livestock and more than one million people have been forced to flee their homes in search of food and water.

-Without current levels of humanitarian assistance, famine already would have been declared in the Bay regions of Somalia.

-Malnutrition in Somalia’s Baidoa and Burhakaba districts has doubled over the past year, and people there will face famine (IPC Phase 5) between October and December 2022 without significant additional humanitarian assistance.

“The climate crisis is a food crisis. Across the Horn of Africa, four rainy seasons have failed and people are dying of hunger every day. If the rains don’t come next month, then famine almost certainly will,” said Ahmed Khalif, Country Director for Action Against Hunger in Somalia. “With food increasingly hard to find and impossible to afford, more parents face the impossible choice of which child gets to eat and which might die. The world has enough food for everyone. Now, we need the will to act.”

Across Somalia, 6.4 million people lack access to clean water and safe sanitation, which is leading to outbreaks of waterborne diseases and gastrointestinal illness that make hunger worse — and which can be deadly for malnourished children.

“By the time a child with severe malnutrition reaches our stabilization centers, they already face the imminent threat of death from hunger. One mother in the Burhakaba district left home in search of food and help for her child only to discover that her baby died on her back. The tragedy is so widespread, many deaths are never reported,” said Khalif. “Malnutrition is treatable. Yet, our centers are overwhelmed with patients and often do not have enough supplies, beds, staff or medicines. We need more resources to save lives and reach more families sooner to prevent these senseless deaths.”

A regional challenge

Across the Horn of Africa – the region that includes Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia – 7.1 million children suffer from acute malnutrition as a result of the drought, which has been compounded by local conflict and rising prices resulting from the war in Ukraine. The United Nations has called for $1.8 billion to provide assistance to nearly 22 million people in crisis, but so far, only a portion of the needed funding has been received.

Action Against Hunger today urged world leaders to scale up aid, immediately, to save lives and prevent more communities from edging closer to famine.

Action Against Hunger in Somalia

Action Against Hunger has been working in Somalia since 1992 and in 2020 served nearly 9% of the country’s total population. The nonprofit is:

-Promoting health: Action Against Hunger works to strengthen health systems and runs 68 health and nutrition facilities and mobile teams, including five hospitals and 30 health centers

-Treating and preventing hunger: so far this year, Action Against Hunger has treated nearly 100,000 children and adults for malnutrition and other illnesses. It also is giving 185,000 families emergency cash assistance so they can buy the food they need, and helping farmers with solar irrigation kits, seeds and fertilizer to once again become self-sufficient in the face of the climate crisis.

-Providing clean water: Action Against Hunger is giving people the supplies and knowledge they need to prevent cholera, working to restore wells where possible, and trucking water to thousands of people, an expensive emergency measure that is not intended to be long-term.

Source: Action Against Hunger USA

8.1million people of concern to UNHCR are hosted in16 Southern African countries, including 1.1million refugees and asylum-seekers mainly from Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan.

UNHCR contributes to protection and solutions for 7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs)in the region due to both conflict and natural disasters –5.6 million in DRC, 1 million in Mozambique, 304,000 in Republic of the Congo (ROC) and 42,000in Zimbabwe.

By the end of August, 11,954 refugees and asylum-seekers voluntarily repatriated to their countries of origin from asylum countries in Southern Africa. UNHCR has also assisted 1,336people to depart on resettlement since the beginning of the year.

Regional Overview Context:

Southern Africa is home to 8.1 million people of concern to UNHCR as of August 2022. Complex crises cause millions to flee their homes and prevent their safe return. The region comprises the largest IDP situation in sub-Saharan Africa, while refugee camps and settlements, along with some urban areas, host long-term refugee populations–some displaced for many decades. The situation is complicated by the growing impact of climate change and natural disasters.

Emergency Situations: About two-thirds of forcibly displaced people in the region have fled conflict in the DRC, mainly in the east of the country, where violence, compounded by natural disasters, have internally displaced 5.6 million people and caused about 1 million to seek asylum. In northern Mozambique, more than1 million people are internally displaced, including 200,000, among them IDPs and refugees, affected by tropical storms and cyclones.

Solutions: Local integration and voluntary repatriation are the focus for solutions in the region, as opportunities for resettlement remain limited to a small percentage of the overall population. Options to expand complementary pathways are also being explored. Steps towards ending statelessness in the region include reforming nationality law, policy and procedure, and supporting access to documentation.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

At least 36.1 Million people across the Horn of Africa are going hungry as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia experience the worst drought in 40 years. With factors across the three countries ranging from four failed rain seasons and a potential fifth, rising costs of living, high inflation, climatic shocks, the Ukraine conflict that has seen wheat and fertilizer shortages, and insecurity, indicators point to the situation worsening.

In Ethiopia, according to UNOCHA, 24.1 million people are currently affected by below-average rainfall as a result of the climate crisis, this is a drought of proportions unseen in recent history. Inaccessibility of food and poor access to water is causing a rise not only in malnutrition amongst children but also across entire communities. Millions of cattle and livestock have already died as pasture and water points dry up. With the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) forecast indicating an even drier than average October to December, when the rains would be expected, the situation will surely worsen.

Benoit Munsch, CARE International’s Managing Director for the Horn of Africa said, “As the food security situation worsens in Ethiopia, we are particularly concerned about the impact this is having on women and girls. Even though CARE has intervened early with food distributions for some affected communities, as well as through agriculture, cash transfers, health and nutrition, and WASH interventions, the unmet need remains staggering. This humanitarian crisis is the challenge of a generation. More funding and support is required to provide life-saving assistance to the hard-hit communities affected by the drought and to help them rebuild more resilient and sustainable livelihoods.”

In Kenya, almost 1 Million children under the age of five and 115,725 pregnant and lactating women are acutely malnourished. These are part of the 4.2 million Kenyans who are facing a severe drought and acute food insecurity. The Government of Kenya declared the drought a national disaster in September 2021. As the cost of living skyrockets and the country continues to feel the impact of the Ukraine conflict, it is expected that more people will continue to slip into hunger and hence the need for enhanced humanitarian response.

Mwende Kusewa, CARE International Kenya interim Country Director said, “While government subsidies on fuel and corn flour are welcome, they offer a very short-lived relief. Unfortunately, as the cost-of-living increases and with a projection that the short rains will likely be below average, we anticipate a grim situation in the coming months. Already it’s reported that in some of these areas, project participants are starting to prefer direct food distribution interventions rather than cash transfers because the high cost of food means that they will increasingly buy fewer food rations with the cash transferred to them.”

On 5th September 2022, humanitarian organizations sounded the alarm that parts of the Bay area in Somalia would slip into famine in October 2022 as the country faces it 5th Failed rainfall season. Somalia has been experiencing the worst drought in 40 years with 7.8 million people experiencing acute food insecurity with the U.N. reporting that, between January to June 2022, at least 200 children have already died as a result. Access to water is becoming increasingly challenging as most water points have dried up and prices have spiked. This is forcing women and girls to travel long distances in search of this precious commodity exposing them to GBV.

We are witnessing massive displacement of communities, with record estimates indicating at least 1 million people have moved from their homes in search of food and water with others even crossing borders. As herds of livestock have been annihilated due to a lack of pasture and water, the livelihoods of millions have been affected causing them to fall further into poverty.

Hali, a 70-year-old mother of 10 children says, “My whole life I was a pastoralist. Due to this prolonged drought in our village, my herd was decimated. I used to have 150 goats and 30 camels, now I am only left with 10 weak goats. I fled the drought and relocated to another place to raise my family.”

Somalia depends on wheat and fertilizer from Ukraine. As the conflict protracts beyond its six-month mark, prices of fertilizer, fuel, and wheat have soared affecting the accessibility of these to many in Somalia.

Iman Abdullahi, CARE International Somalia Country Director said, “We are currently in 11 regions in Somalia offering life-saving rapid response support to affected communities. We are supporting affected communities with Unconditional cash transfers, clean drinking water, health, and nutrition support for children under five years, and psychosocial support for women and girls affected by GBV. Immediate and urgent action is required to scale up our response to save the affected even as the situation worsens.”

Across the Horn of Africa region, CARE International is tirelessly engaged to support the communities that we work alongside. Kate Maina-Vorley, CARE East and Central Africa Regional Director said, “We have worked in the region for many decades, and it will be unfortunate to see some of the work that we have done, especially in support of women and girls being eroded.

For example, in Somalia, girls are dropping out of school to support their families in the search of food. We are weary that practices such as early marriage and Female Genital Mutilation may resurge. With the rising hunger and malnutrition levels, the rise of disease could worsen the situation. At the same time, we are very aware of the situation of neighboring countries, such as Sudan and South Sudan which are also experiencing an increase in food insecurity. In partnership with other humanitarian organizations need to act swiftly to upscale our response to stem this worsening disaster. we call on donors to increase funding to support the scale-up of the ongoing response”

Source: CARE

Highlights

ACO HAC US$26.6M funding requirement funded by 40 percent

218,430 children aged 6 to 59months screened for wasting of which, 52,112 with SAM admitted for treatment in UNICEF-supported nutrition treatment centres, reaching 93 per cent of the 2022 target.

337 health facility staff trained on nutrition practices for the prevention and treatment of malnutrition.

214,449 people with access to safe water

Situation in Numbers

3.9 million children in need of humanitarian assistance

7.3 million people in need

214,449 People reached with access to safe water

218.430 Children under 5 years screened for malnutrition

Funding Overview and Partnerships

Inadequate humanitarian funding continues to significantly impact on UNICEF’s ability to upscale its humanitarian interventions in Angola and to address increasing nutrition, WASH, and education needs. Currently, ACO humanitarian interventions are funded by close to 39 percent, of which a significant proportion of the funds arrived in quarter 2 of 2022 with the remainder 3.7 percent being carry forward from 2021. Major funding contributions to the humanitarian action for children (HAC) in 2022, include Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, USAID, Banco Fomento de Angola, Government of Japan, Global Humanitarian Thematic, and UNOCHA-CERF. However, critical funding gaps continue into quarter 3 of the year limiting both scalability of humanitarian interventions in the south and timeliness. Drought conditions in Angola are deteriorating and protracted, particularly in the South-Western provinces of Cunene, Huila, Namibe. Timely, flexible, and adequate funding remains critical to an effective humanitarian response in the south. Without additional funding, UNICEF’s ability to provide time-critical and life-saving interventions to the most vulnerable children, and implement multisectoral, with nutrition, water, sanitation and sanitation, health, education, and child protection, including gender-based violence services will continue to be constrained. Currently, ACO has partnership agreements with the World Food Programme and CSOs, including World Vision, MENTOR, AfriKare, JAM, people in need (PIN) and ADRA, with whom we continue to implement key HAC interventions in 2022.

Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs

The worst drought in 40 years and rising food prices in Angola have resulted in high acute food and nutrition insecurity in southern provinces. An estimated 3.81 million people are currently reported to have insufficient food consumption in the six southern provinces of the country, namely Cunene, Huíla, Namibe, Huambo, Benguela and Cuanza Sul. This figure represents an increase of 138 per cent compared to 1.6 million people who faced food insecurity in 2020/2021.

The FEWSNET Angola Repot Monitoring Update (https://reliefweb.int/report/angola/angola-remote-monitoring-updatejune-2022) found that in southwestern Angola, most poor households in the region have limited, or no access to selfproduced crops and are relying entirely on food purchases, with food prices in these areas above the national average due to limited supplies in markets. With lower-than-normal purchasing power, an expected normal start to seasonal rains, and the lean season, poor households in Cunene, Huila, and Namibe will continue to face Crisis (IPC Phase 3) food security outcomes from August 2022 through January 2023. While UN CERF UFE interventions have converged geographical and programmatically in Huila province to optimize resources and improve the outcome of humanitarian interventions, food and nutrition insecurity expands beyond and affects other provinces in the south, including Huambo, Bié, Benguela and Cuanza Sul.

Drought has forced families into internal displacement and cross border migration to Namibia. At its peak the Government reported there were 1,823 returnees living in temporary accommodation camps of whom 747 children under 5 and 365 children between 5 and 10 years. In addition, there were 16,000 IDPs including 8,000 children who settled 2 km away from the camp. The drought continues to have a negative impact across sectors. Data collected by UNICEF from provincial education authorities in June 2021 suggest that 8.3% of students in Namibe, 20.1% of students in Huila, and 69.1% of students in Cunene have experienced reduced access to schools due to the drought. In focus group discussions with school communities in Ombadja, Cunene in June 2021, caregivers and teachers consistently noted that the lack of food and access to water made it difficult for many children to attend school.

Source: UN Children’s Fund

Overview

This Weekly Bulletin focuses on public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African region. This week’s articles cover:

Monkey pox in the WHO African Region

Yellow fever in West, Central and East Africa

COVID-19 in the African Region

For each of these events, a brief description, followed by public health measures implemented and an interpretation of the situation is provided.

A table is provided at the end of the bulletin with information on all new and ongoing public health events currently being monitored in the region, as well as recent events that have been controlled and closed.

Major issues and challenges include:

The number of confirmed monkeypox cases has drastically increased within the past week.

Eleven countries have confirmed monkeypox outbreaks in Africa since the start of the outbreak.

All cases reported in the past week are from three countries that previously notified monkeypox cases; Ghana, Nigeria and Morocco. WHO continues to provide the necessary support to improve surveillance and laboratory capacity, including genomic surveillance in affected countries. The immunization coverage for yellow fever has been suboptimal in most of the countries in the WHO African region prone to yellow fever and in specific populations. According to WHO and UNICEF estimates, in 2021, the routine childhood vaccination immunization coverage for yellow fever in the African region was 47%. This is much lower than the 80% threshold required to confer population immunity against yellow fever, indicating that a large population remains susceptible to yellow fever with a risk of continued transmission. Furthermore, many countries in West, Central, and East Africa have been facing political instability and insecurity, in addition to concurrent outbreaks (including COVID-19, Ebola virus disease, cholera, meningitis, malaria, monkeypox, chikungunya, plague, Lassa fever, etc.). These could contribute to delayed case investigation and hinder the surveillance and response efforts against yellow fever.

Source: World Health Organization

In the first months of 2022, cyclonic activity in the South-West Indian Ocean intensified, with severe tropical weather systems killing at least 890 people and affecting over 2.8 million people across Southern Africa. In January,
Tropical Storm Ana affected more than 1.3 million people and caused 171 deaths in Madagascar (131,000 people), Mozambique (185,000 people), Malawi (1 million people) and Zimbabwe (4,000 people). In February, Tropical Cyclones Batsirai and Emnati affected 423,800 people and killed 136 in Madagascar, while Tropical Storm Dumako affected more than 33,700 people and caused 14 deaths in Madagascar (nearly 10,000 people, including 14 dead) and Mozambique (23,700 people). In March, the Tropical Cyclone Gombe weather system impacted nearly 900,000 people and killed 103 in Mozambique (736,000 people, including 63 dead) and Malawi (159,000 people, including 39 dead). In April moderate Tropical Storm Jasmine affected nearly 5,000 people in southern Madagascar, while torrential rains led to flooding and mudslides that impacted more than 123,800 people and killed 448 in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape in South Africa in April and May.

Heavy rains and floods contributed to outbreaks of communicable and water-borne diseases, and heightened food insecurity and malnutrition. Cholera outbreaks were reported in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, while an increase in malaria was reported in Mozambique and Madagascar, and measles was recorded in Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In addition, health authorities in Malawi and Mozambique declared outbreaks of wild polio. In the Grand Sud-Est of Madagascar, Crisis levels of food insecurity (IPC phase 3) were projected in five districts, where food insecurity does not ordinarily rise above the Stressed (IPC phase 2) level. In Malawi, many families lost their food stocks when their homes were destroyed or flooded by the tropical storms and about 52,000 people remained displaced by the end of April.

Meanwhile, severe drought persisted in southern Angola and the Grand Sud of Madagascar, while conflict in northern Mozambique continued to drive humanitarian needs. In southern Angola, about 1.58 million people were acutely food insecure and around 114,000 children under age 5 were projected to require treatment for acute malnutrition between October 2021 and March 2022. In the Grand Sud of Madagascar, despite improvements—largely due to the significant scale-up in humanitarian assistance 7 out of 10 districts remained in Crisis (IPC phase 3) food insecurity and nearly 24 communes had emergency acute malnutrition rates. Meanwhile, in Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique, at least 1.5 million people—including 945,000 internally displaced—were in need of humanitarian assistance, and attacks shifted southward to districts previously not affected.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs