Somalia: Over half a million young children are at risk of starvation

The number of young children in Somalia facing severe acute malnutrition now exceeds half a million – a number not seen in any country this century, UNICEF said today. The United Nations has warned that parts of Somalia will be hit by famine in the coming months as the Horn of Africa region faces a fifth straight year of drought.

“We have over half a million children facing preventable death. It’s a nightmare in waiting,” said James Elder, the UN children’s agency spokesman.

There are more than 513,000 children under the age of five who are expected to face severe acute malnutrition, Elder said, meaning they are much more likely to die from diseases such as measles, malaria and cholera that are sweeping the country.

This represents a 33% increase in the number of children at risk since June.

UNICEF said last week that more than 700 children have died in feeding centers across the country. As Elder said, many of these centers are at capacity and infants are being treated on the floor.

“There are children in critical condition, without treatment, who are at risk of dying within hours,” he warned.

For his part, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, called today for faster action by the international community, pointing out that by the time a state of emergency is declared for malnutrition in Somalia, too many people will have already died.

In 2011, famine in Somalia claimed the lives of over 250,000 people, almost half of whom were children. The current figure is almost double that of the 2011 famine, during which tens of thousands of children died.

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