The severe drought in Somalia has increased the number of deaths among its population specifically in the rural areas.
The rural areas of the Southwestern Bay region have been greatly impacted more so than other areas in the country. Due to the intensity and severity of the drought, the livestock and the people are being threatened by hunger and water disease.
With two continuous seasons of little rainfall, according to the United Nations, has insufficiently provided water for crops and livestock. Resulting in the wipeouts of crops and has killed livestock along with communities having to borrow food and money to sustain themselves through the intense drought.
There has been an increasing number of Somalia people who are suffering from hunger and dying from it. In between 2010 and 2012, there was a total of 258 thousand people killed by famine alone. This number is increasing as the severe drought begins to spread and affect the rural areas where food source grows.
An estimate of 6.2 million people are being affected by the drought and are facing a lack of water and food insufficiency. With rivers drying up there is a beginning to be a lack of clean water. The Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit and the Famine Early Warning systems Network discovered that more than 6.2 million or even half of the Somalia’s population need assistant during the severe drought.
With warnings being given from the United Nations humanitarian coordinator about the drought causing famine, Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire urges business people and others to reach out a hand in helping aid the people of Somalia who are suffering from hunger and lack of water to prevent any further extensive damage from the drought.
As the intense and severe drought takes place over Somalia, increases in drought responses are in need to help reduce the cost of lives and livelihoods, otherwise, it weakens the potentials of taking initiative in key state-building and peacebuilding with Somalia.
Somalia has now been ranked by the UNICEF as one of the four nations where 1.4 million children could die from severe malnutrition due to the drought affecting the population.
