\n<\/p>\n
In a call for immediate funding to help vulnerable communities hit by successive droughts, high food prices and conflict, the UN Children\u2019s Fund UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stressed that the emergency shows no signs of letting up.<\/p>\n
Without action, famine \u201cwill occur within the next few weeks<\/strong>\u201d, FAO said.<\/p>\n The UN agency added that drought-related deaths \u201chave been occurring\u201d and the toll could be much higher in hard-to-reach rural areas, compared with the number recorded in camps for displaced families.<\/p>\n During the famine of 2011, 340,000 children required treatment for severe acute malnutrition, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told journalists in Geneva. \u201cToday it\u2019s 513,000,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a pending nightmare we have not seen this century<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n According to FAO, approximately 6.7 million people across Somalia will likely endure high levels of acute food insecurity between October and December this year (IPC Phase 3 or above).<\/p>\n This includes more than 300,000 who have been left \u201cempty-handed\u201d by the country\u2019s triple emergency<\/strong> and who are expected to fall into famine (IPC Phase 5).<\/p>\n In pastoral communities where herders have been desperately searching for pasture, \u201cthey are now watching their livestock drop dead like flies\u201d, said Etienne Peterschmitt, FAO Representative in Somalia.<\/p>\n The perilous situation of those forced from their homes by hunger in Baidoa town of Bay region in Southern Somalia, is particularly concerning, Mr. Peterschmitt added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe repeated warnings have been clear: act now or a famine will occur within the next few weeks,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe drought situation is spreading at an alarming rate<\/strong>; more districts and regions are facing emergency levels of food insecurity as the cumulative effects of multiple failed rainy seasons take their toll.\u201d<\/p>\n In a call for radical change to stop famine happening again, UNICEF\u2019s Mr. Elder described the disturbing scenes already playing out in Somalia\u2019s worst-affected region.<\/p>\nA \u2018nightmare\u2019 not seen this century<\/h2>\n
Livestock dropping dead<\/h2>\n