UN: Somalia Famine Over, But Aid Still Needed

The United Nations on Friday declared the six-month-long famine in southern Somalia over, but stressed that humanitarian assistance is still needed.

There has been an improvement to food access in the region, combined with a good harvest season, according to the U.N.’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit.

Around a third of the population, or 2.34 million people, are still in need of emergency humanitarian aid in the region, the U.N. said. These people, it added, are “unable to fully meet essential food and non-food needs,” according to a statement.

The U.N. bumped the emergency level in southern Somalia from a “five,” which means famine, to a “four,” or emergency-level food insecurity. 

“This is the result of substantial humanitarian assistance provided and the start of the Deyr harvest, which is expected to be substantially higher than average,” the U.N. said.

Eastern Africa last year was hit with one of the worst droughts in decades, and in Somalia, the situation was exacerbated by instability, leading to the U.N.’s famine declaration. Southern Somalia is mainly controlled by the al-Shabaab militant organization, which is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and other Western governments.

Al-Shabaab, which is linked to the al-Qaeda network, has banned most aid work from taking place in portions of Somalia that it controls. On Thursday it banned the Red Cross from operating, saying that the aid group was handing out bad food.

After the famine was declared in July after a series of failed rains, hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled the country into refugee camps into Kenya and Ethiopia to get food.

Somalia has officially had no central government since 1991, with several factions controlling portions of the country.