By Bisola Adeyemo
UNICEF’s chief of communication in Somalia, Victor Chinyama, appealed to the international community to support Somalia to mitigate the effect of climate change destroying crops, dried up water sources.
Chinyama made the appealed to avert a repeat of the 2011 famine, which killed an estimated quarter-million people.
Speaking from the capital, Mogadishu, Chinyama, said lack of water in Somalia is leading to serious outbreaks of diseases, such as measles, and diarrhoeal diseases including cholera.
“UNICEF is appealing for $48 million to carry out its humanitarian operation. It says $7 million is urgently needed by March to purchase high energy vitamin fortified food. It says the lives of 100,000 severely acutely malnourished children depend upon receiving this treatment.”
Chinyama said half a million people In Somalia have fled their homes in search of food, water, and grazing land for their cattle, exposing them to many risks, while children on the move are particularly at risk of multiple cases of abuse.
“Such as sexual violence, exploitation, gender-based violence. And in the context of Somalia, we cannot talk about displacement risks without addressing the specter of children being abducted and recruited by armed groups, for example, such as al-Shabab,” he said.
“When the international community waits until a famine is declared as we learned from 2011, that is probably a bit too late. A lot of the mortality happens before the famine is declared. When we start to show pictures of emaciated children, distended pot bellies, I am afraid that is too late,” said Chinyama.