According to the latest assessment report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on February 17, 2.65 million people in Somalia are about to be in serious food insecurity.
The report believes that insufficient precipitation, flooding and desert locusts are the main causes.
FAO warned the international community that if large-scale humanitarian assistance is not sustained, the situation will further deteriorate by mid-2021.
FAO and the Somali government stressed that the situation is imminent and that more efforts must be made to support desert locust control and monitoring and provide rapid emergency assistance in the coming months.
The FAO report emphasizes that the risk of severe damage caused by desert locusts to Somali pastures and crops will continue by mid-2021.
In addition, projections indicate that rainfall in most parts of Somalia from April to June will be increasingly likely to be below average, which will further aggravate food and nutrition insecurity for millions of people.
From July to December 2020, aid efforts benefited an average of 1.8 million people per month in different parts of Somalia.
With massive humanitarian assistance and government support, the crisis has been alleviated to some extent, but funds are still urgently needed to expand the scope of work to deal with the current food security risks in Somalia.
