Somalia has narrowly avoided a full-scale famine this year, according to a key assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) body.
The IPC has praised local and international organisations for their “commendable” response to Somalia’s devastating drought, which is the country’s worst in four decades.
But avoiding famine – a word carefully policed by the experts – does not mean avoiding misery, hunger, and many deaths.
And the IPC concludes that the number of people living in catastrophic conditions, just shy of famine itself, is expected to triple in the coming months.
That means over 700,000 Somalis will soon be going hungry, and many will die unless more assistance is provided urgently.
Failing that, famine could be declared as early as next April.
These humanitarian assessments can be slow and frustrating, and it’s hard to get reliable data in war-torn parts of Somalia.
People tend to obsess about when and if the word famine is used. But critics point out that in 2011, tens of thousands of children died in Somalia, long before a famine was declared back then.
