Somalia risks a repeat of 2011 famine as drought tightens its grip on Horn of Africa

Somalia risks a repeat of 2011 famine as drought tightens its grip on Horn of Africa

Somalia is descending into a “repeat of the 2011 famine”, as livestock die en-masse and crops wither away in the worst drought to hit the region for 40 years . Three consecutive years of little or no rainfall have devastated harvests and led to major shortages of food and water across the country – pushing up prices even before the war in Ukraine, known as the “ breadbasket of Europe ”, plunged markets into turmoil. According to figures from the March food price index, published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Friday, global prices have hit a new high – rising by 34 per cent year on year, the fastest rate in 14 years. This could worsen an already stark situation in Somalia, which imports almost all of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine. “We face a real risk of a repeat of the 2011 famine situation, which claimed the lives of a quarter of million people, half [of them] children,” said Mohamed Ahmed, director of programme operations in Somalia for Save the Children. “This will be a reality if we don’t act now.” Analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system (IPC) suggests that 4.1