A ‘Massive Alarm Bell’ for Somalia

Among the horrors of the climate crisis is drought. In Somalia, in particular, it’s become too dry to grow crops, sustain livestock, or find fresh drinking water. Millions of people are going hungry. Children are becoming malnourished to the point of needing to be admitted to “nutrition clinics.” The International Rescue Committee reports that it saw an 818 percent increase of severely malnourished children being admitted to one of its clinics in the course of just four months.

From now until September, the United Nations estimates that more than 7 million people across the country are projected to experience high levels of acute food insecurity, with more than 213,000 facing “catastrophic hunger,” unless urgent support is provided, according to the World Food Program.

“We must be clear,” said Abukar Mohamud, IRC’s deputy director of programs for Somalia, “if famine is declared, it will be too late for hundreds of thousands of people who are already living on so little food that they are in physical pain, their children’s growth has been stunted, and they are leaving their homes in search of food.”

This week, newly released data from the U.N. Refugee Agency and the Norwegian Refugee Council shows that 1 million people already have been displaced by the drought, which has been in progress since January 2021. A drought like this one hasn’t occurred in 40 years.

“This 1 million milestone serves as a massive alarm bell for Somalia,” said Mohamed Abdi, the Norwegian Refugee Council country director in Somalia. “Starvation is now haunting the entire country. We are seeing more and more families forced to leave everything behind because there is literally no water or food left in their villages. Aid funding urgently needs to be ramped up before it is too late.”

As in many disastrous circumstances caused by climate change, women are being hit hardest. They are at particular risk of malnutrition and death in Somalia. The group Action Against Hunger writes that “when lower yields spell a drop in income and food scarcity, women and girls are often the first to eat less. Lack of land rights leave women unable to develop land to meet and adapt to their nutrition needs, and they are often excluded from decisions on how to overcome climate challenges.”

And while Somalia is suffering the worst of the drought and hunger, the crisis is ravaging the entire Horn of Africa, with “over 200,000 already living in the most extremes of hunger,” said Mohamud. The problem has only been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine — Somalia imports 90 percent of its grain from Russia and Ukraine.

Ironically, increased displacement and hunger are also drivers of war. The Horn of Africa drought may lead to a competition for resources, which then can cause violence. Militant organizations like Al-Shabaab are able to step in and offer resources when the state fails to. This serves to “further legitimize their intervention, undermining state actions (or lack thereof),” writes the Pennsylvania-based Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Conflict, the World Food Program says, is the largest driver of hunger, “with 60 percent of the world’s hungry living in areas afflicted by war and violence.” But, after conflict, the next on the list of drivers is climate change. The climate crisis is a key driver of rising hunger levels around the world. And, it appears that disasters are only on the rise.

By February 2023, Abdi says, as many as 26 million people could experience extreme hunger if assistance to Somalia isn’t drastically increased. But, assistance is also necessary in order to stave off famine so that armed groups don’t drown the world further in war.