{"id":14077,"date":"2022-10-17T22:58:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T22:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/?p=14077"},"modified":"2026-03-02T09:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:08:11","slug":"famine-should-not-exist-in-2022-yet-somalia-faces-its-worst-yet-wealthy-countries-pay-your-dues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/2022\/10\/17\/famine-should-not-exist-in-2022-yet-somalia-faces-its-worst-yet-wealthy-countries-pay-your-dues\/","title":{"rendered":"Famine should not exist in 2022, yet Somalia faces its worst yet. Wealthy countries, pay your dues"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span><\/strong>Joshua Hallwright<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

More than a quarter of a million people\u00a0died of hunger in Somalia\u00a0in 2011 \u2013 half of them children younger than five. The situation in Somalia in the coming months\u00a0could be a great deal worse, despite\u00a0global commitments\u00a0to never let the 2011 famine happen again.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0United Nations predicts\u00a0more than 300,000 people in Somalia will be in famine by December.<\/p>\n

Somalia is home to\u00a016 million people\u00a0and has a rich history reaching back to before the Roman Empire. Somali people were\u00a0producing beautiful rock art\u00a0in the third millennium BC,\u00a0trading with Ancient Egypt\u00a0and establishing\u00a0important masjids and mosques\u00a0in Mogadishu from the 7th and 13th Centuries onwards.<\/p>\n

More recently, however, the people of Somalia have endured wars,\u00a0locust plagues, flash flooding, pandemics and, now,\u00a0extreme drought. Today, crisis on top of crisis means\u00a07 million people\u00a0are in need of humanitarian assistance \u2013\u00a0two million more\u00a0than just three months ago.<\/p>\n

Despite historic levels of drought and hunger,\u00a0Somali\u00a0civil\u00a0society continues to find ways to support people at risk of starvation. But additional help is needed. To date, the international community has\u00a0largely failed the Somali population. In 2022, the risk of famine should not exist.<\/p>\n

Defining \u2018famine\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a well established and globally recognised\u00a0system\u00a0of categorising how close to famine people are. \u201cFamine\u201d is the worst of five levels.<\/p>\n

For an area to be declared\u00a0in a \u201cfamine\u201d, there must be hard evidence of very high levels of child malnutrition (over 30%), very high levels of death (for every 10,000 people, more than two people dying every day), and extreme levels of hunger (more than one in five households going without food).<\/p>\n

In 2022, no-one should suffer from a lack of food, let alone extreme starvation:\u00a0the world is producing more food than ever before. And in 2011, humanitarian aid agencies and civil society organisations launched the\u00a0Charter to End Extreme Hunger\u00a0at the UN in New York, clearly outlining five steps to take to avoid famine.<\/p>\n

Since then, it has been endorsed by\u00a0the UN,\u00a0world leaders, and dozens of humanitarian organisations.<\/p>\n

So, why is this happening again?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The past\u00a0four rainy seasons\u00a0in Somalia have failed to materialise and the fifth is very likely to underperform as well.<\/p>\n

Crops\u00a0can\u2019t grow\u00a0to their full potential, if at all in some areas. The camel, goat and cattle herds of Somali pastoralists\u00a0don\u2019t have enough vegetation\u00a0to eat nor enough accessible water to drink – already,\u00a0millions of livestock\u00a0have perished in the current drought.<\/p>\n

Climate change underpins this continued lack of rainfall. Somalia is ranked\u00a0second-most vulnerable\u00a0(after Niger) to the adverse impacts of climate change, which\u00a0will likely cause\u00a0Somalia to experience more drought, affecting more land area, with fewer regular rainy seasons.<\/p>\n

The extreme difficulties of prolonged drought are hard for anyone to cope with, especially if there is little to no safety net to catch people during hard times. Indeed, food prices are higher now\u00a0than during the 2011 famine.<\/p>\n

Somalia does have a nascent social safety net called\u00a0Baxnaano<\/span>. It aims to build a bridge beyond the humanitarian approach, addressing immediate food security and nutrition issues, while also laying the foundations for a stronger workforce. But it is still at the pilot stage.<\/p>\n

The country is divided in three: south-central Somalia, the self-declared independent region of Somaliland, and the autonomous state of Puntland in the north. The various governments are not able to reach some parts of the country or provide adequate safety nets for Somalis experiencing the harsh challenges of a changing climate.<\/p>\n

That said, some lessons have been learned by Somali governments from previous disasters. In 2021, the\u00a0National Desert Locust Monitoring and Control Centre\u00a0was established, along with the\u00a0Drought Operations Coordination Center\u00a0in Puntland, which predicts upcoming droughts and climate extremes.<\/p>\n

This centre and\u00a0many others\u00a0warned Somalis and the world of the seriousness of the predicted drought back in early 2020. They have continued to\u00a0repeat these warnings\u00a0as the situation deteriorated.<\/p>\n

These warnings fell on largely deaf ears until only very recently. The coordinated plan to respond to the Somali crisis had received only US$56 million\u00a0in March, but needs US$1.5 billion to be properly implemented.<\/p>\n

While the international community\u2019s efforts have ramped up in recent months, the plan to provide life-saving support\u00a0is still missing US$409 million.<\/p>\n

What needs to change?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Between October and December, the drought is expected to force 6.7 million people across Somalia into\u00a0acute food insecurity, a technical term meaning people are close to starving.<\/p>\n

International assistance needed to be provided at scale when the first warnings were shared. This was\u00a0clearly stated back in 2011.<\/p>\n

This includes supporting preventative and\u00a0resilience-building initiatives, such as\u00a0rehabilitating water points\u00a0and\u00a0establishing mini greenhouses. Such initiatives will enable Somalis to help others prepare for difficult times and get through the worst impacts of the changing climate.<\/p>\n

And, perhaps most importantly, wealthy countries should compensate Somalis for the catastrophic impacts climate change is having on their lives.<\/p>\n

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This compensation – known as \u201closs and damage financing\u201d in UN circles \u2013 will be a central topic\u00a0at the upcoming international climate change summit\u00a0COP27<\/span>, held in Egypt in November.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Loss and damage\u00a0refers to climate change harms that can\u2019t be prevented, mitigated, or sometimes even prepared for. Think rising sea levels destroying entire ways of life, or disasters that are happening so often, so severely, that even insurance companies refuse to insure people against them.<\/p>\n

Somalis produce a tiny, tiny amount\u00a0of greenhouse gas emissions compared to the high-income countries of the world. Yet, they are experiencing some of the worst impacts of climate change, as the current drought and hunger crisis so clearly demonstrates.<\/p>\n

COP27 should lead to Somalis, and the many millions more around the world hit hard by climate change, being financially compensated by the countries and corporations most responsible for changing the climate.<\/p>\n

How can I help?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The crisis in Somalia will only worsen in the coming weeks. If you are in a position to donate, consider the following charities:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Bulsho Kaab: a Somali donation-based crowdfunding platform that supports communities and youth initiatives across Somali regions.<\/li>\n
  • Oxfam<\/li>\n
  • M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res<\/li>\n
  • Red Cross\u2019 Global Hunger Crisis Appeal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Joshua Hallwright More than a quarter of a million people\u00a0died of hunger in Somalia\u00a0in 2011 \u2013 half of them children younger than five. The situation in Somalia in the coming months\u00a0could be a great deal worse, despite\u00a0global commitments\u00a0to never let the 2011 famine happen again. The\u00a0United Nations predicts\u00a0more than 300,000 people in Somalia will …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":10032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14077"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18792,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14077\/revisions\/18792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}