• Currently, the total number of people requiring humanitarian assistance is estimated at 3.2 million. According to the revised Humanitarian Requirement Document released in April 2011, the number of people requiring emergency assistance in southern Somali, the lowlands of Oromia, and southern SNNPR is about 2 million. More than 60 percent of the needs are in Somali, followed by the lowlands of Oromia.
• The performance of the 2011 belg/gu/genna (February to May) rains has been below normal to date, which is likely to result in poor or no belg harvest prospects. The poor rains have exacerbated food insecurity in the southern and southeastern pastoral and agro pastoral areas, and caused major food security concerns in the belg cropping areas of the country in general and the major sweet potato and coffee‐dependent zones of the Southern region in particular, where seasonal moisture deficits of 50 to 100 mm have been recorded. Humanitarian needs are therefore likely to increase significantly in the coming months.
• Staple cereal prices have risen atypically in recent months, largely in the pastoral and agro pastoral areas as well as cropping areas of the Southern region, despite an average to above‐average 2010 main season harvest. The poorly performing current rains and increased fuel prices are likely to create further upward pressure on food prices.