NAIROBI: The World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday warned that millions of people in Somalia face worsening hunger as major cuts to donor aid leave the UN agency with a critical funding shortfall.
According to the United Nations, the African state is among the most vulnerable to climate change, and in the last five years has faced both the worst drought in four decades and massive flooding.
It said that in November, 750,000 people, more than two-thirds of the current number, will be cut off from the WFP emergency food programme.
That could “tip those worst affected into catastrophic conditions,” the agency said.
“We are seeing a dangerous rise in emergency levels of hunger, and our ability to respond is shrinking by the day,” said Ross Smith, WFP’s director of emergency preparedness and response, in a statement.
WFP leads the largest humanitarian operation in Somalia and supports more than 90 percent of the country’s food security response.
“The current level of response is far below what is required to meet the growing needs,” Smith said.
Government data released in August shows that 4.4 million people are facing acute food insecurity in the conflict-hit nation.
The WFP said that with about 1.7 million children under five already acutely malnourished, including 466,000 in critical condition, only 180,000 are currently receiving its nutritional treatment.
Cuts to foreign assistance by the United States and other Western states this year have worsened funding issues in many developing nations.
British charity Save the Children warned in May that funding shortfalls would force it to close more than a quarter of its health and nutrition facilities in Somalia.
