Nearly 860,000 people remain acutely food insecure in Somalia
Key Messages
An estimated 857,000 people will be in Crisis and Emergency (IPC Phases 3 and 4) requiring urgent humanitarian assistance between February and June 2014.
The food security condition of over two million additional people remains fragile and are currently classified at Stressed (IPC Phase 2). This group of households will barely be able to meet their own minimal food requirements through mid-2014, and they remain highly vulnerable to shocks that could lead to more severe acute food insecurity.
Food security outcomes for poor households in cyclone-affected areas of the Northeast region, and flood affected areas in Middle Shabelle who are currently in Crisis (IPC Phase 3!) but only due to the presence of humanitarian assistance. In these areas, significant asset losses and loss of access to markets, land, and fishing areas has severely reduced access to food.
Levels of acute malnutrition remain Critical (defined as global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates exceeding 15 percent) among rural populations in many parts of South-Central Somalia and among a majority of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). An estimated 203,000 children under the age of five are currently acutely malnourished. Of these, 51,000 are severely malnourished and thus face a higher risk of death.