MOGADISHU, Mar 8 (NNN-IRIN) – The Ongoing conflict in Somalia is worsening the humanitarian situation, making it harder for humanitarian organisations to access the populations in most need of assistance, aid agencies said.
In a joint statement issued in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, local and international agencies under the umbrella of the Somalia NGO Consortium said, the recently displaced 185,000 people, due to the fighting in Las Anod in northern Somalia, require urgent humanitarian assistance.
“Millions of people are at risk. There is no time to wait. Without urgently and immediately scaling up humanitarian assistance, hunger-related deaths are likely to be as high as those of the 2011-2012 famine in Somalia, when 260,000 people died, half of them children,” Nimo Hassan, the director of the Somali NGO Consortium, warned.
According to the UN, Somalia is witnessing a five-year historic dry spell – a situation not seen in more than 40 years – and an expected sixth failed rainy season is bound to displace many more families, as famine looms on the horizon.– NNN-IRIN
