Hundreds of starvation deaths in Somalia in 48 hours

Mogadishu: Somalia which has been facing drought for the last two years has now a serious famine crisis roaring around. Within 48 hours more than 110 citizens have lost their lives including infants at large. While informing about it, Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre expressed his concern on more than 50% population that could get affected by the drought.

Last week itself Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo having said that Somalia is facing a serious drought calamity declared it as a National Emergency. He feared of 62 lakhs citizens of Somalia getting affected by this famine. Later, the Prime Minister’s report states that the drought crisis is becoming severe.

Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre informed about the starvation deaths after the ‘Somali National Drought Committee’ meeting. ‘In just one region of Somalia, the drought has caused at least 110 deaths in just two days. In Bay region in the southern part and in the other parts of the country the situation is becoming more acute day by day. As per our knowledge more than half of the population of the country stands affected, saying so the Prime Minister warned about the future crisis.

In the last month, UN Secretary General had appealed for financial help to resolve the problem of drought and starvation in Africa. The region known as the ‘Horn of Africa’ is suffering from severe drought and acute starvation and needs urgent help, thus was claimed in it. The Horn of Africa included Yemen, Southern Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia. The UN study report indicates that at least 50 lakh Somalians would need help.

The Somalia Government has warned that the severity of starvation has increased more due to drought making the common people fall victim to crime and extortion of terrorist organisations and may result in infringement of human rights. The UN Human Rights Organisation and the ‘World Food Program’ claimed for a minimum of 90 crore dollars financial assistance for Somalia. Against this background, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Stephen O’Brien would be visiting Somalia in the next few days, sources informed.

Earlier, in 2011, the drought in Somalia had resulted in nearby more than 2.5 lakh starvation deaths.