ReliefWeb

Highlights

• The humanitarian situation remains dire in Somalia with an estimated 4.2 million people, including 2.5 million children, in need of humanitarian assistance and protection due to repeated climatic shocks, continued conflict and violence.

• Over 1.5 million people will require emergency nutrition support and treatment, with 954,000 children under five years projected to be acutely malnourished from August 2018 to September 2019. In 2018, 220,000 children were admitted in UNICEF-supported nutrition centres, exceeding the annual target by 28 per cent, and covering 94 per cent of the national severe acute malnutrition (SAM) burden.

• In 2018, a three-fold reduction of measles was recorded compared to 2017 following the mass supplementary immunization of more than 4.4 million children between six months to 10 years old.

• Some 3 million people are still in need of urgent healthcare and access to WASH services. UNICEF and partners also provided close to 1.1 million people in 2018 with temporary access to adequate and safe water.

• In 2018, children continued to be the most affected by crises in Somalia. More than 3 million school age children remain out of school, and child protection concerns were also on the rise with 5,279 children reported to be victims of grave violations.

Situation Overview and Humanitarian Needs

The humanitarian situation remains dire in Somalia due to repeated climate shocks, continued conflict and violence. According to the recently released 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), over 4.2 million people, including 2.5 million children, need humanitarian assistance and protection. Over 1.5 million people will require emergency nutrition support and treatment, with 954,000 children aged under-5 projected to be acutely malnourished from August 2018 to September 2019, including 173,600 severely malnourished. By December 2018, over 3 million children, out of 4.9 million in the country, are estimated to be out of school, including 1.85 million school aged children who require urgent assistance. Disease outbreaks such as acute watery diarrhoea (AWD)/cholera and measles continue to represent a major threat to children with 9,034 suspected measles cases (73 per cent being children under-5) and 6,761 suspected cases of AWD/cholera including 46 deaths reported in 2018. There are also an estimated 2.6 million people displaced in country, including over 1 million in the last year alone, with women and children representing the majority of the displaced. The growing trend of forced evictions continues, and between January and October 2018, close to 235,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were evicted in Somalia. On average, over 11,000 IDPs are evicted every month, and many were subjected to multiple evictions. Exclusion and discrimination of socially marginalized groups continue to exacerbate elevated levels of acute humanitarian needs. In 2018, reported cases of child protection violations rose, with 5,565 children, including 805 girls, reported to be victims of grave violations committed by parties to the conflict. The Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting (CTFMR) also reported that 2,300 children, including 72 girls, were recruited by armed groups, an increase of 8 per cent when compared to the same period in 2017. The 2018 Deyr season was below average to poor in many parts of Somalia. As a result, northeast and central regions of Somalia are expected to be affected by drought, with the overall humanitarian situation expected to worsen until the next Gu rainy season in April 2019.