Somalia: Drought Response and Famine Prevention (1-24 October 2022) [EN/AR]

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

Somalia's longest drought in at least 40 years has surpassed the duration and severity of the 2010-2011 and 2016-2017 droughts and continues to drive high levels of humanitarian needs. The $1.46 billion 2022 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) launched in January 2022 targeted about 5.5 million people in need. However, there are now more than 7.8 million people affected by drought in the wake of a fourth failed rainy season, more than double the 3.2 million people affected by drought at the beginning of the year. As a result, humanitarians have increased funding requirements to further step up assistance.

• Humanitarians are requesting additional funds to meet increased needs. Humanitarians have revised initial targets for funding and people assisted to further support the unprecedented scale-up in response. These revisions bring 2022 funding requirements to $2.27 billion to meet the needs of 7.6 million people. More than 80 per cent of the new funding requirement is related to drought.

• The revised funding requirements and target population come amid deteriorating conditions and forecasts of further drought. About 6.7 million people are facing acute food insecurity, up from 4.3 million who were experiencing acute food insecurity between June and September 2022.
  More than 300,000 people are facing catastrophic food insecurity (IPC Phase 5), up from 121,000 who were experiencing it between June and September.
  The call for further scaled-up support also comes as Somalia braces for an unprecedented fifth consecutive below-average rainy season, as well as projections and increased risk of famine for areas in central and southern Somalia if assistance fails to reach those most in need.

• Drought displacement has increased threefold since the beginning of 2022. People continue to leave their communities in search of food, water, pasture and basic services. More than 700,000 of the 1.1 million people displaced by drought since January 2021 have yet to receive any shelter assistance. Even though weekly tallies of new arrivals have declined over the past three weeks, going from 7,669 families (46,104 people) in the week of 3 October to 3,220 (19,320 people) in the week of 17 October, recent partner reports indicate large movements of drought-displaced people to sites for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Daynile and Kahda Districts in Banadir Region,
  Baidoa in Bay Region and other districts.
  The 68,393 people displaced by drought in September 2022 are a 30 per cent decrease from the almost 99,000 recorded in August 2022. Bay and Lower Juba are the regions that have seen the most new arrivals, accounting for 26 and 22 per cent of all September arrivals respectively, followed by Gedo, Banadir and Bakool. More than 70 per cent of all movements were intra-regional.

• Humanitarians continue to step up life-saving assistance, reaching 6.5 million people through September. Partners have stepped up response in a bid to avert the worst outcomes. Donors have made generous contributions totalling more than $1 billion, yet critical gaps remain, including in core lifesaving sectors, and additional funds are urgently required to sustain and further expand response efforts to keep pace with the increasing scale, scope and severity of needs across Somalia.
  Moreover, more funds must be channelled to national NGOs who are providing critical frontline response.