Somalia

USAID/OFDA provided life-saving nutrition assistance during the 2011 drought crisis.

Nancy Lindborg/USAID

Since 1991, chronic food insecurity, widespread violence, and recurrent droughts and floods have generated a complex emergency in Somalia.  Due to the 2011 drought, which is widely regarded as the worst in 60 years, food security among pastoralists and populations in marginal farming areas sharply deteriorated, resulting in famine in some areas of southern and central Somalia between July and September 2011.  Although the famine has since abated, vulnerable Somalis continue to experience a lack of affordable food, safe drinking water, and access to basic health care services, as well as movement restrictions due to general insecurity.  Ongoing conflict between al-Shabaab insurgents and Somalia government forces—supported by African Union Mission in Somalia, Government of Ethiopia, and Government of Kenya forces—continues to displace populations and limit humanitarian access to affected areas.  Relief operations across southern and central Somalia are further constrained by al-Shabaab’s intermittent expulsions of international relief organizations.  As of August 23, the U.S. Government (USG) had provided more than $185.1 million to support humanitarian activities in Somalia in Fiscal Year (FY) 2012.

USG HUMANITARIAN FUNDING PROVIDED IN FY 2012

*(As of August 23, 2012)

Horn of Africa Fact Sheet #28  (422kb PDF) and map (1.41mb PDF)

Key Developments

On August 24, the U.N. Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) released the results of the 2012 post-gu assessment detailing current figures for food insecurity in Somalia.  According to FSNAU and FEWS NET, sustained humanitarian assistance, the presence of El Niño, improvements among pastoralists, and increased milk availability will likely result in approximately 2.1 million people who may endure Crisis—Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3—or Emergency—IPC 4—levels of food insecurity, a 17 percent decrease in food insecure households.  However, the assessment cites that the 2012 gu cereal harvest in southern Somalia was the third lowest since 1995, and pockets remain food insecure.  Approximately 236,000 children, 70 percent of whom are in southern areas, remain acutely malnourished. 

The Health Cluster—the coordinating body for health-related assistance in Somalia—reported an improving trend in recent months in the incidence of communicable diseases in central and southern Somalia.  Between June and July, health facilities reported an 84 percent decrease in the number of suspected cholera cases, a 45 percent decline in confirmed malaria cases, and a 6 percent decrease in measles cases, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).  The disease reductions are attributed to prevention campaigns and the end of the gu rainy season.  Despite overall national improvements in communicable diseases, health facilities have reported an increased number of cholera cases in Banadir Region, where a high concentration of internally displaced persons reside, according to the U.N. World Health Organization. In addition, the Health Cluster cites low immunization coverage in areas of central and southern Somalia—due primarily to access constraints and ongoing insecurity—as the cause for sporadic, localized increases in other communicable disease outbreaks.