ICG Kampala Meeting - Current Humanitarian Situation and Access

According to the most recent country-wide needs assessment, 2.4 million people, one in three Somalis, are in need of humanitarian assistance, a 20 percent increase in the number of vulnerable compared to the second half of 2010. The increase is due to a combination of drought, skyrocketing food prices and constant population displacement as a result of the ongoing conflict. Malnutrition rates continue to rise, with 75 per cent of the estimated 241,000 malnourished children in the country residing in the conflict-stricken southern regions. This is due to a combination of factors including lack of clean water - leading to diarrhea - and reduced access to milk as livestock migrate in search of water and pasture. With 1 in 4 children acutely malnourished, and 1 in 23 severely malnourished in southern Somalia, the situation remains one of the worst in the world. [Discussion Paper]