Somalia droughts claimed 43,000 lives in 2022, children most vulnerable — UN report

Droughts in Somalia may have killed as many as 43,000 people last year, according to a new report by the Somali government and the United Nations published Monday March 20, while UNICEF Director of Programs Sanjay Wijesekera warned on the same day that “Africa is facing a water catastrophe.”

The highest death rates were estimated to have occurred in south central Somalia — the current epicenter of the drought according to the report — with half of the drought-related deaths may have occurred among children under the age of 5, says the report released by Somalia’s Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“This report has clearly indicated that the impact of the drought that is unprecedented in this country had a severe impact on the lives of the people of Somalia,” WHO Somali Representative Dr. Mamunur Rahman Malik told VOA Somali.

The report also warns that although famine has been averted, the drought situation is not over.

Meanwhile, a new UNICEF report says 190 million children in 10 African countries are “at the highest risk” from three water-related threats and climate hazards. The three threats, known collectively as WASH, are: inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene. Many children in the affected countries do not have access to basic sanitation, according to the UNICEF analysis, whose findings are being released just days ahead of the U.N. 2023 Water Conference. Water in the home is not available to nearly one-third of the children, while two-thirds do not have basic sanitation service. The countries affected by the water nightmare are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Somalia.