Highlights
- Since January 2017, UNICEF and partners have provided lifesaving therapeutic treatment to 129,602 severely malnourished children. This represents 105 percent of the children reached in 2016. The number of admissions in the hotspot areas of Bay, Bakool, Galgadud, Mudug and the Shabelle regions account for 37 percent of all children reached to date.
- To scale-up its nutrition response, UNICEF has established 51 partnerships with local and international NGOs, delivering services through more than 750 mobile and fixed sites across Somalia. Efforts are also underway with WFP to strengthen the integration of the nutrition response, through an analysis of areas with low coverage of nutrition services. As a result, UNICEF is opening three additional Stabilization centres, as well as 30 fixed and 48 mobile outpatient therapeutic programme (OTP) sites.
- In light of the scale of internal displacements, and to contain the AWD/Cholera outbreak, additional emergency latrines and garbage disposal pits are required in IDP sites and hotspot areas, combined with enhanced hygiene promotion and provision of hygiene kits. UNICEF urgently requires additional funding to procure and pre-position emergency WASH supplies in regional supply hubs to support 150,000 households affected by AWD/Cholera.
Situation Overview and Humanitarian Needs
The humanitarian situation in Somalia continues to deteriorate due to the drought crisis. According to the most recent FSNAU-FEWSNET forecast, an estimated 2.5 to 3 million people will remain in need of humanitarian assistance between August and December 2017. The drought is also uprooting people, with 766,000 people displaced since November 2016.
The projected number of children who are, or will be, acutely malnourished has increased by 50 per cent since the beginning of the year to 1.4 million, including over 275,000 who have or will suffer life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in 2017. Severe acute malnutrition admissions have increased by more than 50 per cent when compared to 2016 data covering the same months, consistent with the planning scenario used by the clusters and UNICEF. The post-Jilaal 2017 FSNAU survey indicates that the prevalence of global acute malnutrition in the livelihood zones of Bay, Bakool, Sool, Sanaag, Bari, Nugaal, as well as in the Baidoa and Mogadishu internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, is critical (15-30 per cent). While food access was found to be relatively better than previously projected, levels of acute food insecurity remain severe and are expected to persist throughout 2017 given the likelihood of a third consecutive poor harvest in July. The post-Gu assessment is ongoing and an updated estimate of people in need based on new data will be available in mid to late August.
Severely malnourished children are nine times more likely to die of killer diseases like acute watery diarrhoea (AWD)/cholera and measles.
As per WHO data, 75,930 cases of AWD/cholera have been reported as of 30 July; with 1,155 deaths recorded and a case fatality rate (CFR) of 1.5 per cent. Some 14,379 suspected measles cases have also been reported since the beginning of the year including 101 associated deaths (CFR of 0.7 per cent), and an estimated 4.5 million people remain in urgent need of WASH assistance.
Full report: UNICEF SOMALIA SITUATION REPORT: 16-31 July 2017
Original source: UNICEF.
Posted on 31 July 2017.
