Hundreds of thousands desperate for food aid after severe drought

The third worst rain season in a decade has exacerbated an already desperate food security situation in Somalia and left up to 1.2 million people in need of food aid until the next crop expected in April next year, a famine early warning agency said. The northwestern, northeastern and central regions of the country have been hit by a severe drought and households in those areas were in desperate need of help, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net) said in its latest update on Somalia issued on Wednesday. A total of 222,600 people in four areas of Somalia required immediate emergency interventions, it said. These areas are the Sool Plateau and Nugal Valley in the northeast, northern Galgadud and south Mudug in the central region, and Lower Juba riverine communities and western parts of Gedo in the south. Another 447,100 people in areas adjacent to these places require urgent livelihood support to prevent them from declining into a state of humanitarian emergency, it added. The northeast has been devastated by a three-year drought that has led to massive livestock deaths and creating destitution, while the Juba Valley riverine zone, a chronically food-insecure area, is facing severe conditions this year after three successive years of crop failure that have resulted in malnutrition rates of 19.5 percent with a mortality rate of 2.2 per 10,000 per day. The Gu (long rains) harvest in Somalia this year was about 125,305 mt, which accounted for 75 percent of the post-war average, according to FEWS Net.