Millions of Somalis at risk of famine: UN agencies

Millions of Somalis at risk of famine: UN agencies

AFP

Millions of people in Somalia are at risk of famine, with young children the most vulnerable to the worsening drought in the troubled Horn of Africa nation, UN agencies warned on Tuesday.

"Somalia is facing famine conditions as a perfect storm of poor rain, skyrocketing food prices and huge funding shortfalls leaves almost 40 percent of Somalis on the brink," the agencies said in a statement.

Many parts of Somalia are being ravaged by drought that has also taken hold in other countries in the region including Ethiopia and Kenya, but the UN agencies warned of a major funding shortfall to address the crisis and avoid a repeat of the 2011 famine.

"We are literally about to start taking food from the hungry to feed the starving," the UN World Food Programme's Somalia representative El-Khidir Daloum said in a statement, describing the country as "on the cusp of a humanitarian catastrophe".

Six million Somalis or 40 percent of the population are now facing extreme levels of food insecurity, according to a new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, almost a two-fold increase since the beginning of the year, the agencies said.

The joint statement by the WFP, the UN's Food and