Attachments
Highlights
• The end of October saw widespread flooding in Hiraan and Bay regions. The UNICEF led WASH Cluster and partners responded to the flooding in late October through the distribution of hygiene kits to over 30,000 people in Belet Weyne district.
• To preempt and prevent a surge in diseases, health supplies were prepositioned including acute watery diarrhoea kits, sterilization and resuscitation kits to flood affected areas in Lower Shabelle.
• UNICEF supported nutrition centres across Somalia have reached 150,981 children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) so far in 2019.
• In October, some 7,000 children benefitted from the distribution of education supplies including school-in-a-box kits. This coupled with investment on teachers’ development is aimed to help children thrive in their classrooms.
• Child protection programmes supported 38,591 people with psychosocial support, community-and-school-based mine risk awareness and access to gender-based violence (GBV) services.
Situation Overview and Humanitarian Needs
In late October, the heavier than usual Deyr seasonal rains resulted in flooding in riverine areas in Central South Somalia, with Belet Weyne district in Hiraan being the worst affected with much of the town being submerged and more than 270,000 residents displaced. An estimated 20 per cent of the displaced are children under 5 years of age. Floods have led to displacement and destruction of property in Belet Weyne - triggering urgent needs in shelter, food, health, drinking water, sanitation/latrines and mosquito nets.2 Education services have been disrupted and schools have been closed with 27,500 children (9,300 girls) seeing their access to education interrupted as the result of the flooding. A total of 86 schools have been affected by the floods both in urban and surrounding settlements of Belet Weyne.
The lingering effects of the poor performing 2019 Gu season (68 per cent below average) are still being felt. Up to one million children at risk of acute malnutrition and 178,000 children at risk of SAM between July 2019 and June 2020. The overall humanitarian situation continues to worsen throughout agro-pastoral and riverine areas. 3 These same areas are those that were hit by flooding, doubling the impact of the delayed rains.