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  • Somalia is facing its worst drought in 40 years, claiming tens of

  • thousands of lives. Last year alone today, U. N Secretary General

  • Antonio Gutierrez was in its capital Mogadishu on his first official

  • visit to the Horn of Africa in six years, and he called for massive

  • international support for Somalia. Stephanie Sai has more

  • Somalia faces one of the world's most acute humanitarian crisis.

  • There are many causes climate change and drought as well as ongoing

  • armed conflict across the Horn of Africa. 24 million people are extremely

  • food insecure, and in Somalia, humanitarian agencies warned nearly

  • eight million people, half of the population is still in dire need

  • of humanitarian assistance. To discuss the challenges. I'm joined

  • by Omar Mahmoud, a senior analyst for East Africa for the International

  • Crisis Group. He joins me from Maputo, Mozambique. Omar thank you

  • so much for joining the news hour. There was a massive humanitarian

  • mobilization last year that brought Somalia back from the brink of

  • famine. And yet 43,000 people died, half of them Children. Put that

  • tragedy into context for us. Essentially, Somalia is going through

  • a very difficult climatic period right now because you've had five

  • consecutive rainy seasons that have been below par and that's essentially

  • unprecedented. And you know, there's 1/6 1 underway right now. The

  • projections are that this will also be Under par. You know, Somalia

  • is one of the most climate, vulnerable nations out there and in the

  • world and on top of it, you have a very pressing security situation

  • where it's even difficult to access some of the populations in need.

  • So it all creates kind of a perfect storm. And that is the reason

  • that nearly two million people today are living in camps specifically

  • for displaced people within the country. We spoke to Mercy Corps

  • County director Do JaRon, who frequently visits the camps, and he

  • described the situation when you ask them, how do they really sustain

  • themselves? They will tell you the only cook the evening meal. So

  • imagine somebody with five young Children and all he gets his baby

  • a multipurpose cache of $80 a month. To buy some food. And I'm trying

  • to sustain those five Children with that little food, which comes

  • only in the evening from day to day and the rest of the time they

  • depend maybe on just water and hang around with him for the next

  • field. That is significant. So not even within the camps. Can Children

  • and families get enough to eat when you were last in Somalia? Omar,

  • How would you compare what you saw to last year when the country

  • was facing famine? Have things gotten better or worse? Well, I mean,

  • it's it's basically a continuation. You know, I think the concerns

  • around famine and whatnot, some of the humanitarian response was

  • able to avert that, but temporarily, you know that's still on the

  • horizon. There's still concerns that if the response isn't the same

  • level as it was last year, and your funding is always an issue here

  • that these kind of dynamics could could re emerge. There's no natural

  • relief on the way, unfortunately with the climatic conditions, so

  • that's why the humanitarian response is needed to continue, and I

  • want to go back to climate change. But first I want to ask you about

  • the security situation because we know that nearly a million Somalis

  • who need assistance live under territory controlled by Al Shabaab.

  • How does that affect their access to aid? What's it's quite difficult

  • for those populations that live under al Shabaab control either after

  • have to suffer kind of under that way, or they make the choice to

  • basically flee to these I d. P camps and that's where we see these

  • numbers, especially in southern Somalia growing quite a bit, But

  • that is, of course, a perilous journey. You know, it takes quite

  • quite a bit of time to get to some of these camps as well. Um and

  • not a lot of food there all the time as well. Besides the urgent

  • need for immediate food assistance Secretary Guterres said today

  • that Somalia needs the conditions to build resilience and also get

  • on what he called a path toward development. I know you study policy

  • in this region. Billions of dollars have gone into humanitarian aid

  • there over the years. What other kinds of investments are needed.

  • If you look at The vulnerability of Somalia to climate shocks and

  • climatic changes, and how the intervals between these climatic changes

  • is reducing overtime basically increases the vulnerability of the

  • country and the population climate adaptation work can basically,

  • you know, take that reality and into context rather than just simply

  • responding to humanitarian response and developments. But kind of

  • move the needle forward. And so there's a lot of kind of projects

  • around finding new water sources, you know, digging deeper boreholes,

  • rehabilitating infrastructure around canals and other irrigation

  • systems that already exists, But it kind of fallen out of out of

  • repair. And so I think, channeling some of that some of that focus

  • and work into some of those things can then also help for the future

  • Omar Mahmoud with the international crisis group. Thanks for joining

  • us, Omar Thanks for having me.

Somalia is facing its worst drought in 40 years, claiming tens of

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