PRESS RELEASE

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Drought-Ravaged Somalia on the Verge of Famine; Millions at Risk

April 20, 2017 (EIRNS)—According to the latest report from the international aid group Save the Children, Somalia is on the verge of a mass famine. The group, in its latest survey, noted "life-threatening malnutrition rates are rising sharply. We are on the brink of a massive catastrophe in Somalia with the death of three quarters of the country’s livestock, a rapid increase of children suffering severe malnutrition, and the depletion of water stores in dozens of communities," said Hassan Saadi Noor, Save the Children’s Somalia country director, who said "he fears seeing children dying in significant numbers," Associated Press reported.

Noor also pointed out that more than half of the population of Somalia, around 6.2 million, needed immediate lifesaving assistance as a result of drought in the country, while a further 8.3 million living in countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, including those stranded in refugee camps, needed urgent help, according to a report from Iran’s PressTV.

Britain’s Guardian, in its report on the life and death crisis in Somalia, described that in the villages around Baidoa, northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, and

"across the worst-hit areas of southern and central Somalia, the toll is mounting. There are scattered deaths from lack of food, but illness is the main killer. Spend an hour with those pouring into the town, 180 miles northwest of Mogadishu, and you will find fathers who have buried four children in as many days, grandparents left to fade away in villages, and breastfeeding mothers who have carried twins for 70 miles under a searing sun in a last-ditch bid to find help."

Aid authorities

"also admit that an official UN figure of about 550 deaths as a result of cholera and similar diseases in Somalia since the beginning of the year is grossly underreported. The true figure could be 10 times as many, or more,"

the Guardian reported.