英语文摘:Expert survey says 5 mln Somalis in food crisis; 96,000 in catastrophic hunger

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- As the Horn of Africa enters its sixth failed rainy season, 5 million Somalis are in a crisis or worse food situation, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.

Among them, 96,000 people are in catastrophic hunger situations, said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, citing the experts' Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.

"It is estimated that approximately 1.8 million children will be acutely malnourished in 2023, including almost 478,000 children who are likely to be severely malnourished," said Dujarric.

The IPC said that "food insecurity conditions, outbreaks of acute watery diarrhea/cholera and measles are contributing to high levels of acute malnutrition."

The spokesman said the latest multi-partner IPC survey for Somalia shows a slight improvement from previous projections, with the number of people reached with food assistance going from an average of 2 million people per month between January and March 2022 to an average of 5.4 million people per month between October and December 2022.

"However, partners caution that the underlying crisis has not improved and even more appalling outcomes have only temporarily been averted," Dujarric said. "Moreover, 6.5 million people are expected to face crisis or worse food insecurity outcomes from April to June."

He said the UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia seeks over 2.6 billion U.S. dollars to meet the priority needs of 7.6 million vulnerable people. Additional funds are urgently required to sustain the response beyond March.

The spokesman said that the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) notes that as the Horn of Africa enters its sixth consecutive rainy season with no rain, the number of displaced people mounts.

"Millions of people from Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya struggle to survive amid scarce water sources, hunger, insecurity and conflict," he said. "With no immediate end in sight to one of the longest and most severe droughts on record, UNHCR is appealing for 137 million U.S. dollars to provide life-saving aid to 3.3 million refugees and internally displaced people who have been forced to flee their homes, as well as impacted local host communities."

According to UNHCR, the drought displaced more than 1.7 million people in Ethiopia and Somalia, most of them last year, he said. More than 180,000 refugees from Somalia and South Sudan also crossed into drought-affected areas of Kenya and Ethiopia.

The spokesman said, "UNHCR added that in recent weeks, nearly 100,000 people arrived in Doolo, a remote area in Ethiopia's Somali region, itself hard hit by the drought. These people are fleeing conflict in the Laascaanood area within Somalia. In Somalia alone, since the start of the year, over 287,000 people have been internally displaced due to conflict and drought."