Somaliland. Khadra Dayibi’s family who live in the village of Hara Adan are getting water from the village’s water reserve pool. The residents use and drink unpurified water from the same pool where domestic animals get their water from. Photo: Aapo Huhta / Finnish Red Cross
A combination of pervasive insecurity, combined with recurrent drought and chronic underdevelopment has left millions of Somalis in need of urgent and sustained humanitarian assistance.
Nearly three million people in the country are facing crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity.* A report released earlier this month by the Famine Early Warning System Network warned that the risk of famine is increasing. In 2011, a famine in Somalia claimed at least 260,000 lives — half of them children.
Famine occurs when mortality, malnutrition and hunger exceed a certain rate in a specific country or region.**
Adar Aden lives in the village of Hara Adan. She doesn’t have a water filter or any other means to purify the water. She collects her drinking water from the same pool where animals get their water too (Photo: Aapo Huhta / Finnish Red Cross).
Somaliland, Somalia. Livestock near the Qulujeed village. It’s becoming more and more difficult to find water or food for the animals after a three year long drought. Many herder families have lost majority of their animals already (Photo: Tatu Blomqvist / Finnish Red Cross)
The Somali Red Crescent Society is present throughout the country, supporting communities to respond to the many and growing challenges they are facing.
Somaliland, Somalia. A mobile clinic supported by Finnish Red Cross is leaving at sunrise from Boroma to the Adwal province in western Somaliland to give urgent help. The car is packed with emergency materials and medication, and the unit’s first 25 day rotation will cover and area of 90 000 people. Nuuradiin Mohamed Mahomoud and Raxma Osman Hersi (Photo: Tatu Blomqvist / Finnish Red Cross)
Abdulai, Disaster response Manager for the Somali Red Crescent, talks with villagers during a visit of the mobile clinic in Doop village in the Sanaag region of Somaliland, which has been hard hit by two years of poor rainfall, resulting in livestock death, health issues, and severe water shortages (Photo: Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville).
A Red Crescent medical officer prepares to dispense medications at a mobile clinic in Doop village (Photo: Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville).
Kinsi Abdi Farah, 35, visits the mobile clinic with her nephew, one year old Saed Abdi Jama, who is suffering from malnutrition. Farah lives in Doop village in Sanaag region of Somaliland (Photo: Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville).
*Source: Horn of Africa, A call for action. UN OCHA. February 2017
