The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against deadly diseases and malnutrition affecting the people of Somalia due to drought, reported The Daily Sabah.
In an interview with Anadolu Agency (AA), Mamunur Rahman Malik, the WHO representative in Somalia, said some areas in the country are already experiencing a famine-like situation. He made an appeal to the Somalian government to shift its focus to work on providing life-saving support to the vulnerable population.
“If we can work together in competing for resources, if we do not duplicate our efforts, if the government steers the process and oversees the situation, we can overcome this situation,” he said.
At least 50% of the country’s population as more than 7 million people are believed to be directly or indirectly affected by the one of the most extreme droughts in the country in four decades and are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance. The dry spell has also displaced nearly a million people – the majority of them women and children.
The WHO representative said health consequences of one of the worst droughts were alarming, cautioning that more people may die because of diseases than hunger.
He said if the Somalia government do not prioritize health in terms of expanding access to emergency health care and life-saving support, people will eventually die of diseases.
Due to the current drought, the health situation in the Horn of Africa country is deteriorating rapidly.
Mr. Malik said that diseases follow famines and droughts as they accompany malnutrition, which causes more deaths than hunger itself.
“We need to protect the health of these vulnerable people to save their lives from largely preventable causes,” the WHO representative said.
He said a number of regions in Somalia are seeing a high number of cholera incidents, acute diarrheal disease, and pneumonia and measles cases amongst these vulnerable people impacted by the drought.
