Somalia: Drought Response and Famine Prevention (16 December 2022 - 15 January 2023)

OVERVIEW

Conflict and insecurity are major impediments to humanitarian operations especially outside major population centres across Somalia, with insecurity contributing to an extremely difficult operating environment. Partners are working with local authorities and communities to reach people in need wherever they are and to allow people to access humanitarian assistance. All parties must fulfill their obligation to protect civilians and civilian objects and facilitate humanitarian access, including removing any impediments to assistance, in accordance with international humanitarian law.

ACCESS

Humanitarian access remains a major impediment to the delivery of assistance in Somalia, especially in areas where conflict is ongoing and security concerns are high. Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland and South West State are areas of particular concern. In 2022, at least 565 access incidents were reported in 91 districts, impacting the safety of aid workers and delivery of assistance. Nearly 660,000 people, of whom 375,770 are estimated to need assistance, live within territory controlled by non-state armed actors and are largely out of reach. This population figure is a drop from September 2022 estimates of 770,000 people and is attributed to the recovery by the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) of some areas from non-state armed actors.

In December 2022, humanitarian programmes were delayed in South West State and in the disputed Sool Region between Puntland and Somaliland due to tensions, leading to movements of humanitarian staff being restricted. In Laas Caanood, humanitarian programmes including school feeding, safety net and nutrition were delayed, impacting over 15,700 families (94,200 people). In Hirshabelle and Galmudug, as the situation in newly recovered areas stabilizes, humanitarian access should improve. Plans for Cluster-led missions in January to March 2023 are being developed. Furthermore, partners report that access to a caseload of approximately 346,000 highly vulnerable people in dire need of lifesaving humanitarian food and cash assistance in seven districts under the control of non-state armed groups remained highly constrained.

CARAVAN MISSIONS

To reach vulnerable people in hard-to-reach areas, an UNHAS Cessna Caravan and a WFP helicopter are available for joint access, assessment and monitoring missions. From June 2021 to August 2022, 38 Caravan missions were conducted to 34 different locations, many of which had not seen high-profile missions for considerable time. Some 39 different entities, including national NGOs, international NGOs, UN agencies, Clusters, Government and media participated in these missions, not only affording access to partners and populations in the field but encouraging closer engagement across agencies and partners. According to the Logistics Cluster, the helicopter transported over 50.612 MT to four hard-to-reach locations: Buurhakaba, Jalalaqsi, Mahas and Qansax Dheere in November 2022.

Unimpeded access to all people in need is critical as efforts continue to scale up assistance to respond to the drought and to prevent famine. While local communities and humanitarian partners have prevented famine thresholds from being surpassed so far, the underlying crisis has not improved, and even more appalling outcomes are only temporarily averted. Famine is a strong possibility from April to June 2023 and beyond if humanitarian assistance is not sustained and if the 2023 April to June rains underperform as current forecasts indicate. Over 6.3 million Somalis are expected to currently face high levels of acute food insecurity, including 322,000 in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5), and about 1.8 million children under 5 will likely face acute malnutrition through June, including over 513,000 who are expected to be severely malnourished.