NAIROBI, 7 March 2011 (IRIN) - One in three people in Somalia needs
humanitarian assistance as a severe water crisis, linked to the La
Niña weather phenomenon, takes hold across much of the country after
failed seasonal Deyr rains and amid continuing armed conflict. Prices
of cereals and water in many areas have soared.
Here are some facts and figures about this crisis, culled from a
report by the Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Security and
Nutritional Analysis Unit.
The population of Somalia is 7.5 million; of whom 2.4m people require
humanitarian assistance, a 20 percent increase over the last six
months:
1.46m people in central and southern areas (where humanitarian access
is very limited) have been displaced by conflict;
940,000 are in a state of acute food and livelihood crisis;
535,000 are in a state of humanitarian emergency (unable to access
2,100 kcal per day, among other criteria);
45,000 pastoralists are considered destitute, up 7 percent;
241,000 children under five are acutely malnourished (up 7 percent
from six months ago). In the south, this equates to 20 percent of all
under-fives. Across the country, the acute malnutrition rate is 16
percent;
57,000 of these are severely malnourished - one in 23 children under
five in the south, and 4 percent nationally, a rise of 31 percent
compared with six months ago;
75 percent of those acutely malnourished live in southern regions;
20 percent of normal cereal crop output was produced in agro-pastoral
and riverine areas of southern Somalia, causing the number of people
in crisis in these areas to rise by almost 70,000, to 440,000. Deyr
crop production was the lowest since 1995;
A 33-47 percent reduction in cattle prices since December 2010 was
observed in all southern areas;
Since 2009, the cost of a household's bare minimum food and non-food
items has risen by 32 percent in the south. This cost fell by 12
percent in the northwest thanks to a bumper harvest in 2010.
am/mw[END]
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