Somalia: Climate Change and Famine

(asked on 7th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) urgently scale up and prevent mass starvation and death in Somalia and (b) tackle the underlying drivers of climate change in that region.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 15th February 2022

The UK is deeply concerned by the situation in Somalia. Multiple shocks, including threats from Covid-19, desert locusts and floods, have deepened Somalia's protracted climate and conflict-induced humanitarian crisis with over 7.7 million people in need of assistance and disrupted progress towards stability and economic recovery. The Federal Government of Somalia has declared a 'humanitarian emergency', with 90 percent of the country now facing severe to extreme drought.

In 2020, the UK provided 2.5 million vulnerable Somalis with life-saving cash assistance (874,409), nutrition (303,938), health (453,639) and emergency WASH-Water and Sanitation (895,002). The £8 million support package for Somalia that I announced on 17 January will help to improve health and food security conditions of at least 500,000 people, and limit displacement linked to worsening drought conditions in the country. We support the Humanitarian Response Plan published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the UK is working closely with the Federal Government of Somalia, the UN and international partners to support an early and rapid response.

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