Somalia is facing a massive humanitarian crisis but the level of response did not match the needs of the affected population, the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said.
"Somalia is no longer on the verge of a catastrophe, the disaster is happening now," Bruno Jochum, MSF director of operations in Geneva, said in a statement issued on 26 June.
On the sides of the road between Mogadishu and Afgoye [30km south], where an estimated 250,000 displaced people are living, there was a medical and nutritional emergency.
"Last week alone, over 500 severely malnourished children were admitted in our nutritional programmes. One out of six of these children needed to be hospitalised due to medical complications," said Jochum.
MSF teams working in the Mogadishu/Afgoye corridor treated more than 2,500 children suffering from acute malnutrition in May.
"We are running at full capacity and we don’t see a reduction in the numbers, we anticipate more," the head of mission MSF in Somalia, Kenneth Lavelle, told a news conference in Nairobi on 26 June.
Jochum warned that if this trend continued, malnutrition would soon affect more of the general population, such as children over five and vulnerable adults.
"The situation is tragic and we are unable to provide the aid necessary to prevent further deterioration of the situation," he added.
Continued indiscriminate violence in and around Mogadishu, rising prices of basic commodities such as rice and corn, which have in some cases tripled since the beginning of the year, and drought conditions in most parts of the country, have all contributed.
At the same time, the gap between critical needs, particularly in and around Mogadishu, and the level of humanitarian response, has widened due to the extremely limited capacity of aid agencies to deliver assistance in a highly insecure and volatile environment.
"Twenty-four months after the political and military involvement of international community members in the name of restoring stability and fighting terrorism, the situation is catastrophic for the Somali population," Christophe Fournier, MSF international council president, is quoted as saying.
All sides to the conflict, he added, were contributing to the humanitarian disaster.
"MSF demands that humanitarian action is kept independent from the political and peace-keeping agenda in Somalia and that all belligerents guarantee safe and unhindered access to aid actors," Fournier noted.
Since fighting between Ethiopian-backed Somali forces and insurgents began in early 2007, about one million Somalis have fled their homes. An estimated 6,500 civilians have been killed.
Aid workers estimate 2.6 million Somalis need assistance. That number is expected to reach 3.5 million by the end of the year if the humanitarian situation does not improve, according to the UN.
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