MOGADISHU, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a relief agency, on Tuesday called for sustained funding to enable agencies to scale up humanitarian assistance in Somalia in 2025.
OCHA said about 5.98 million people are expected to need humanitarian assistance in Somalia in 2025, representing a 13 percent reduction from 2024 when 6.9 million people were deemed to need help. "Of these, 4.6 million people will be targeted for assistance, which is an 11 percent reduction from the 2024 target of 5.2 million people," OCHA said in its humanitarian report released in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
The UN agency said the financial requirement for next year currently stands at 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, a 10 percent reduction from 2024. "With 2024 ending, Somalia has received only 44 percent of humanitarian contributions against the 1.59 billion dollars needed for the response," OCHA said, noting that humanitarians are likely to reach only about half of the 5.2 million people targeted for assistance by the end of the year.
It said sustained assistance is critical, given that approximately 4.4 million people are projected to face severe hunger in Somalia due to anticipated poor rainfall between October and December 2024. Seasonal rains were below average across Somalia, reinforcing fears of the projected adverse impact of La Nina-induced dry conditions as vast areas of the country continue to experience dry conditions.
Citing projections by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FewsNet), a food security monitoring unit, OCHA said the poor October-to-December rains and protracted conflict may drive atypically high food assistance needs through mid-2025.
The FewsNet outlook published on Nov. 19 warned that emergency (IPC Phase 4) outcomes are expected in several settlements hosting conflict, flood, and drought-displaced populations through May 2025 and among crop-dependent agro-pastoralists. It added that Bay and Bakool regions are likely to be worst affected.
According to the UN, some 1.6 million children under the age of five are at risk of acute malnutrition until July 2025, including 403,000 who are likely to suffer from severe malnutrition.
Somalia's humanitarian crisis is among the world's most complex, marked by cycles of internal conflict and climate shocks that drive displacement and undermine development efforts, OCHA said.
Climate change exacerbates vulnerability, with altered rainfall patterns leading to both droughts and floods.
According to OCHA, 9.1 million people, or 47 percent of Somalia's population, are impacted by multiple shocks, including floods, drought, disease outbreaks and displacements. ■
