War-torn Somalia risks sliding back into acute crisis less than three years since a devastating famine, aid agencies warned on May 7, 2014
Cash-strapped United Nations agencies could soon be forced to halt vital aid in Somalia despite warning signs the war-torn country could be sliding back into a food crisis, a top UN official said Friday.
"Essential life-saving projects are facing closure," warned Philippe Lazzarini, UN humanitarian coordinator in the country, pointing out that contributions to the Somalia appeal have dwindled.
A programme run by the UN children's agency UNICEF that provides some three million people with primary healthcare could end as early as next week, while the vital food aid for millions could begin drying up in July, he told reporters in Geneva.
A UN appeal for $933 million in humanitarian aid for Somalia is so far only 15 percent funded.
At the same time last year, UN agencies had received twice the $143 million pulled in so far this year, said Lazzarini.
The lack of funding was especially dramatic due to signs the country might be heading towards another devastating famine, he said.
Somalia was the hardest hit by extreme drought in 2011 that affected over 13 million people across the Horn of Africa, with famine zones declared in large parts of the war-ravaged south.
Some 250,000 people, around half of them young children, died in Somalia during that famine, according to the UN, which has acknowledged it should have done more to prevent the tragedy.
50,000 children at death's doorWhile there have been improvements, the country has far from recovered, with over 50,000 severely malnourished children "on the doorstep of death," Lazzarini said.
Another two million Somalis are "teetering on the edge of food insecurity," he said, stressing they "could at any time fall into an emergency."
The last famine was not declared until half of all of those who died during the catastrophe were already dead, he said.
Among the warning signs is the fact that seasonal rains crucial for farming and usually lasting from April to June have yet to start in key southern areas of Somalia.
"This could severely impact the upcoming harvest," Lazzarini warned, pointing out that military offensives to weed out Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents was also disrupting trade and farming.
In a worst-case scenario, these factors could combine to create a repeat of the 2011 famine, "which morally and collectively is something we cannot let be repeated," he said.
Lazzarini said that UNICEF needed only $8 million to keep its primary health care programme running, and voiced optimism that donors would deliver.
The World Food Programme, which in March distributed food to 521,507 people in the country, meanwhile needs $12 million through the end of the year to keep its food pipeline on track, he said.
"Limited resources will inevitably force the country office to reduce rations," spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told AFP in an email.