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A health facility has also been damaged, according to the UN Children\u2019s Fund, UNICEF, and other humanitarian agencies.<\/p>\n
In the past few weeks, clashes have broken out in Baidoa, the state\u2019s largest city, between Government forces and fighters loyal to the former regional president, who was ousted in March.<\/p>\n
The army has been seeking to maintain control of the city, which it seized earlier this year. Hostilities flared on Monday, according to news reports, after thousands of local fighters entered Baidoa that morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren are once again bearing the heaviest burden of violence<\/strong>,\u201d said the UN Children\u2019s Fund, UNICEF, expressing deep concern about the escalation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUNICEF calls on all parties to protect children from harm<\/strong>, ensure the protection of schools, and health facilities, and allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access.\u201d<\/p>\n This recent development occurs against the backdrop of an already severe humanitarian crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Somalia has been experiencing decades of food security crisis driven by recurring cycles of conflict, mass displacement, global trade disruptions and extreme climate shocks like severe droughts and flooding.\u00a0<\/p>\n Across Somalia, two million children are acutely or severely malnourished<\/strong>, making Somalia one of the world\u2019s biggest malnutrition crises, say UN agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Baidoa alone, 26,000 people face catastrophic food insecurity<\/strong>, the highest level on the hunger scale, putting them at risk of famine.\u00a0<\/p>\n The stronger-than-ever El Ni\u00f1o weather pattern is expected to deepen the crisis by intensifying the October-December rainy season.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Families on the ground have been torn apart by these overlapping crises, said the UN World Food Programme (WFP).\u00a0<\/p>\n Hawo\u2019s family is one of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some days we eat just once a day<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n First, a mortar hit their family home in Baidoa, killing her father. Then her brother died during the fighting. She was forced to flee to Mogadishu with her daughter and now lives there with her aunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven with my aunt\u2019s support I have been struggling, but sometimes it is really bad<\/strong>,\u201d she said. \u201cSome days we eat just once a day.\u201d<\/p>\n Her daughter Farhiya became listless, losing her appetite and shedding weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n A neighbour recommended she visit the Weido clinic, but the clinic is turning women and children away due to lack of resources.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope I can get the support I need for my child to recover<\/strong>,\u201d Hawo said, as aid workers worry things will only get worse.<\/p>\nDecades of humanitarian crisis<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Overlapping crises\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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