UN calls for help for 'traumatized, hungry' Somalis

The head of the UN World Food Programme called Thursday for the international community to send help to "traumatised and hungry" Somalis as food insecurity "spirals" in the African country.

More than 6.6 million people, or a third of the population, are expected to face crisis or worse levels of hunger this year, Cindy McCain told the UN Security Council.

"I went to Somalia just last month and I saw for myself how conflict and climate change are conspiring to destroy the lives and livelihoods of millions of Somalis," she said.

"I was horrified and heartbroken by what I witnessed -- violence, fear and starvation are the daily reality there."

Somalia, which has been dealing with a historic drought since 2020, was able to avoid a famine in 2022, "because the international community saw the warning signs flashing red and raced to respond," McCain said.

"But now we are in danger of losing the precious gains we have made since those dark days last year," she warned.

The dire figures include some 40,000 people who are currently living in "famine-like conditions" and 1.8 million children who are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year.

Since the beginning of last year, armed conflict in the country has added even more suffering to climate-linked hunger and displacement crises.

"Continually having to move has left people impoverished, traumatised and hungry," McCain said.

Even so, the WFP has had to cut back certain aid, she said, with only three million people per month receiving food assistance in April, down from nearly five million per month in December.

Without more funding, that number will fall again to less than two million per month by July.

The UN has appealed for $2.6 billion in aid for Somalia in 2023, though the plan is only about 30 per cent funded.

Somalia, one of the poorest countries on the planet, has been mired in chaos since the fall of dictator Siad Barre's military regime in 1991.