2017 Somalian drought

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Map of drought and displacement in Somalia, 2017. Somalia - Drought and Displacement, 2016-2017.png
Map of drought and displacement in Somalia, 2017.

As of February 2017 a drought ravages Somalia that has left more than 6 million people, or half the country's population, facing food shortages with several water supplies becoming undrinkable due to the possibility of infection. [1]

Somalia Federal republic in Africa

Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Federaalka Soomaaliya; Arabic: جمهورية الصومال الفيدرالية‎, translit. Jumhūrīyah aṣ-Ṣūmāl al-Fīdirālīyah, is a country with its territory located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Guardafui Channel and Somali Sea to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. It is separated from Socotra by the Guardafui Channel in the northeast and from the Seychelles by the Somali Sea. Somalia has the longest coastline on Africa's mainland, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.

Famine widespread scarcity of food followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, inflation, crop failure, population imbalance, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. In the 19th and 20th century, it was generally Southeast and South Asia, as well as Eastern and Central Europe that suffered the most deaths from famine. The numbers dying from famine began to fall sharply from the 2000s.

Contents

According to the Humanitarian Information Unit of the U.S. Government, over 2.9 million people in Somalia face crisis or emergency level acute food insecurity and need emergency food aid, as a result of below average to failed rains in many areas in 2016 that reduced crop production and harmed livestock. Somalia is currently facing its seventh consecutively poor harvest and food stability is a major issue. In the April-June rainy season little to no rainfall occurred across much of Somalia in April, but rain has begun and is forecasted in May. Lack of potable water has accelerated an acute watery diarrhea-cholera outbreak with an estimated 32,000 cases reported since the beginning of the year. 1.4 million children are projected to need treatment for acute malnutrition in 2017, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). FEWS NET expects 2.9 million people will remain in crisis and emergency levels of acute food insecurity through at least June 2017. In March 2017, 1.75 million people received international food assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). [2]

Diarrhea Loose or liquid bowel movements

Diarrhea is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin with loss of the normal stretchiness of the skin and irritable behaviour. This can progress to decreased urination, loss of skin color, a fast heart rate, and a decrease in responsiveness as it becomes more severe. Loose but non-watery stools in babies who are exclusively breastfed, however, are normal.

Cholera Bacterial infection of the small intestine

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and muscle cramps may also occur. Diarrhea can be so severe that it leads within hours to severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. This may result in sunken eyes, cold skin, decreased skin elasticity, and wrinkling of the hands and feet. Dehydration can cause the skin to turn bluish. Symptoms start two hours to five days after exposure.

Malnutrition Medical condition that results from eating too little, too much, or the wrong nutrients

Malnutrition is a condition that results from eating a diet in which one or more nutrients are either not enough or are too much such that the diet causes health problems. It may involve calories, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins or minerals. Not enough nutrients is called undernutrition or undernourishment while too much is called overnutrition. Malnutrition is often used to specifically refer to undernutrition where an individual is not getting enough calories, protein, or micronutrients. If undernutrition occurs during pregnancy, or before two years of age, it may result in permanent problems with physical and mental development. Extreme undernourishment, known as starvation, may have symptoms that include: a short height, thin body, very poor energy levels, and swollen legs and abdomen. People also often get infections and are frequently cold. The symptoms of micronutrient deficiencies depend on the micronutrient that is lacking.

An estimated 1.1 million IDPs currently live in Somalia, and at least 548,000 additional people have been displaced since November 2016 due to the drought. Most people displaced by drought left rural parts of Bay, Lower Shabelle, and Sool and settled in urban areas such as Mogadishu and Baidoa. Displacement numbers continue to rise as more people leave their homes and displacement monitoring increases. IOM and other UN agencies estimate that the number of IDPs, a highly vulnerable group in Somalia, will rise to 3 million by June if the April-June rains are below average or fail entirely. Additionally, since January 2016, about 56,000 former Somali refugees have returned from Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp to Somalia through UNHCR's voluntary repatriation program and have settled in Gedo, Bay, Lower Jubba, and Banaadir. [2]

Internally displaced person

An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.

Bay, Somalia Region in Somalia

Bay is an administrative region (gobol) in southern Somalia.

Lower Shabelle Region in Somalia

Lower Shabelle is an administrative region (gobol) in southern Somalia.

Causes

Main causes of the drought and its impact are said to be instability, conflict and climate change with severe weather conditions potentially also playing a part. [3] [4] El Niño may be the drought's cause. [5]

Climate change Change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns for an extended period

Climate change occurs when changes in Earth's climate system result in new weather patterns that last for at least a few decades, and maybe for millions of years. The climate system is comprised of five interacting parts, the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), cryosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere. The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun, with a relatively tiny amount from earth's interior. The climate system also gives off energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.

Extreme weather includes unexpected, unusual, unpredictable, severe or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a location’s recorded weather history and defined as lying in the most unusual ten percent. In recent years some extreme weather events have been attributed to human-induced global warming, with studies indicating an increasing threat from extreme weather in the future.

El Niño Warm phase of a cyclic climatic phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean

El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific, including the area off the Pacific coast of South America. The ENSO is the cycle of warm and cold sea surface temperature (SST) of the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean. El Niño is accompanied by high air pressure in the western Pacific and low air pressure in the eastern Pacific. El Niño phases are known to be close to four years, however, records demonstrate the cycles have lasted between two and seven years. During the development of El Niño, rainfalls develop between September–November. The cool phase of ENSO is la Niña with SST in the eastern Pacific below average and air pressure high in the eastern and low in western Pacific. The ENSO cycle, both el Niño and la Niña, causes global changes in temperature and rainfall.

Humanitarian situation

On 4 March, Somalia's prime minister Hassan Ali Khayre announced that at least 110 people died due to hunger and diarrhoea in Bay Region alone. [6]

Richard Trenchard, the FAO Representative for Somalia, noted that the situation in many rural areas, particularly Bay, Puntland is starting to look "worryingly like the run-up to famine in 2010-2011". [7]

Puntland region in northeastern Somalia

Puntland, officially the Puntland State of Somalia, is a region in northeastern Somalia. Centered on the town of Garoowe in the Nugal province, its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998 but is internationally recognized as an autonomous region of Somalia.

The International Organization for Migration also warns that if "action is not taken immediately, early warning signals point towards a growing humanitarian crisis in Somalia of potentially catastrophic proportions". [8]

Hassan Saadi Noor, Save the Children's Country Director in Somalia states: [9]

We're on the verge of a catastrophe similar to 2011 – or worse, as conditions now are markedly worse than in the lead-up to that event. A quarter of a million lives were needlessly lost then, and we know that action at this stage can make a difference. The international community must step up to ensure that tragic moment in history isn’t repeated.

In addition to drought and famine, diseases, such as cholera and measles are beginning to spread. [8]

As of March 2017, more than 8,400 cases of the cholera have already been confirmed since January, which have claimed 200 lives. [10] On 20 March 2017, at least 26 people died from hunger in the semi-autonomous Jubaland region of southern Somalia in the past 36 hours, according to the state media. [11]

As of July 2017, unclean drinking water has caused over 71,000 cases of cholera or severe diarrhea in 2017, resulting in nearly 1,100 deaths. [12]

Calls for response

Immediate response

On 2 February 2017 a senior United Nations humanitarian official in Somalia warned of a famine in some of the worst drought-affected areas without a massive and urgent scale up of humanitarian assistance in the coming weeks. [1] [7] He also stated that the omission of such an immediate response "will cost lives, further destroy livelihoods, and could undermine the pursuit of key State-building and peacebuilding initiatives". [7] On 8 March 2017 United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged a massive scale up in international support to avert a famine. [13]

Adequate response

While the particular drought can only be dealt with by an immediate response some suggest foresight and preventive, long-term, more cost-efficient and appropriate measures. Esther Ngumbi, researcher at the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Auburn University in Alabama, suggests that Horn of Africa's repetitive cycles of drought and hunger crisis should be responded to with "strategic integration and coordination between governments and NGOs" to "help farmers become more resilient to drought and other climate change-related disaster". Furthermore she states that once this has been achieved, innovative ways to disseminate available information and solutions to farmers would be needed. [14] Mohamed Abdulkadir, field manager of Save the Children notes that food deliveries destroy local markets. [15] German Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Gerd Müller suggested a billion-strong crisis-fund for the United Nations to allow it to act preventively. [16]

Response

Government response

On 28 February 2017, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declares the drought a national disaster. [17]

Germany

According to reports of 1 May 2017 in a visit to the country Germany's foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel pledged to at least doubling the 70 million euros of aid and stated in a press conference with Somali prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire that the "international state community has to do more against the famine catastrophe". [18] [19] [20] Furthermore he asks the international community to no longer view Somalia as a failed state "but as a state which laboriously struggles to recreate a reliable state structure" enabling it to "guarantee security". [21]

International

On 11 May 2017 the international conference on Somalia took place in London. There Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed showed plans for security in the country. According to Sigmar Gabriel over half the needed financial resources have been brought together. [22] [23]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Drought in Somalia: Time is Running Out". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 The preceding text is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
  3. ↑ "This Is A Worsening Humanitarian Crisis That Shows No Signs Of Slowing". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  4. ↑ "Famine fears rise as Somalia suffers worst drought in decades". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  5. ↑ "Hungerkrise in Somalia: Millionen Menschen brauchen Hilfe" (in German). Tagesschau. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  6. ↑ "Hassan Ali Khaire: Hunger, disease kill 110 in two days". Al Jazeera. 4 March 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 "Urgent scale-up in funding needed to stave off famine in Somalia, UN warns" . Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  8. 1 2 McKenzie, David; Swails, Brent. "Somalia: 'People are dying..there's no water'". CNN. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  9. ↑ "Somalia reaching a 'tipping point' as signs of malnutrition among children worsen". Save the Children International. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  10. ↑ "Aid agency warns of surge in cholera cases in Somalia". Xinhua. 11 March 2017. More than 8,400 cases of the diseases have already been confirmed in 2017, 200 of which have been fatal
  11. ↑ "Hunger kills dozens in Southern Somalia amid Drought". Shabelle News. 21 March 2017.
  12. ↑ "Hundreds of Thousands of Somalis Displaced by Drought, Conflict". Voice of America. 30 July 2017.
  13. ↑ ""The world must act now to stop this," UN chief Guterres says on visit to drought-hit Somalia". UNSOM. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  14. ↑ "How to tackle repetitive droughts in the Horn of Africa". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  15. ↑ "Somalia: "Wenn keine Hilfe kommt, werden sie sterben" - heute-Nachrichten" (in German). Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  16. ↑ "Mit dem Vieh verhungern die Menschen - Somalia vor der Katastrophe | Aktuell Afrika | DW.COM | 26.02.2017" (in German). Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  17. ↑ "Somalia declares 'national disaster' over drought". Al Jazeera. 1 March 2017.
  18. ↑ "Hungersnot in Somalia: Deutschland will Hilfe verdoppeln" (in German). Tagesschau. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  19. ↑ "Außenminister in Somalia: Gabriel am Horn des Hungers". SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  20. ↑ "Germany pledges 70 million euros to aid Somalia fight hunger". ABC News. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  21. ↑ "Germany's Gabriel makes surprise visit to Somalia". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  22. ↑ "Somalia-Konferenz: Wieder nicht genug". tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  23. ↑ "Kommentar: 17 Seiten für den Frieden | Kommentare | DW.COM | 11.05.2017" (in German). Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
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