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News > Somalia

Malnourished Children Overwhelm Hospitals in Somalia

  • A woman and her son at a hospital in Somalia, June 2022.

    A woman and her son at a hospital in Somalia, June 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @jilevin

Published 23 June 2022
Opinion

The number of people in catastrophic conditions is projected to increase from 38,000 in May to 213,000 in September unless the world wakes up to the scale of the unfolding crisis.

On Thursday, Save the Children warned that the treatment of malnourished children on mattresses outside overflowing hospitals clearly shows that Somalia is hurtling towards a famine that could kill hundreds of thousands.

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"Famine is bearing down on Somalia and clinics for malnourished children are close to breaking point. Children are dying now and we are in a race to stop that from happening," Save the Children's Country Director for Somalia, Mohamud Mohamed Hassan said.

With beds and wards full, said the charity, doctors are being forced to care for children in tents, meeting rooms, and even on mattresses outside as drought in East Africa and war in Ukraine drive up food prices, making staples unaffordable for many.

In May, Save the Children's facility in Baidoa admitted a record 324 children, nearly three times higher than in the same period last year. The number of children dying at the center is also increasing as more and more arrive too racked with malnutrition and other diseases to be saved. Eight children died there during May alone.

"The world is sleepwalking towards another catastrophic famine of the sort we promised would never happen again. It's time to wake up," Hassan said, adding that the response in Somalia is hugely underfunded, noting that the G7 needs to make tackling hunger and malnutrition in Somalia and across East Africa a priority.

The United Nations has appealed for US$1.5 billion to tackle this urgent and deadly crisis but has received just US$400 million. Hunger in Somalia is being fanned by a perfect storm of factors unlike anything seen in a generation. The country is on the front line of climate change and reeling from the ripple effects of war in Ukraine, thousands of miles away.

The number of people in catastrophic conditions is projected to increase from 38,000 in May to 213,000 in September unless the world wakes up to the scale of the unfolding crisis. Some 386,000 children face severe malnutrition, which is life-threatening without treatment.

"People are being overwhelmed by a deadly mix of factors that go far beyond what we saw in 2011 when 250,000 people died. Families in Somalia are at the sharp end of vast global shockwaves. Resilient communities are being overwhelmed," Hassan said.

Four consecutive failed rains have caused the country's worst drought for 40 years and left millions on the brink of the first famine anywhere in the world for five years. Pastures, crops, and livestock across the country have been devastated as meteorologists warn of a significant risk of record fifth failed rains.

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