Last Chance to Save Somalia

In May at Newsweek Magazine, I wrote how time was running out to rescue Somalia from famine. The clock is now almost at zero unless the world acts decisively to save Somalia from mass starvation.

It’s our last chance according to the UN Relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, who was just in Somalia and witnessed the starvation occurring because of severe food shortages. Griffiths is pleading to all of us “I have been shocked to my core these past few days by the level of pain and suffering we see so many Somalis enduring. Famine is at the door, and today we are receiving a final warning.”

Over 7 million Somalis woke up today with the pain of hunger and no idea where to get a meal. Drought has ruined farming and food production.

Somalia is a climate change tragedy as drought has repeated year after year. All coping measures have been exhausted. Families are desperately searching for food and water, having to walk miles to hopefully find something. But there is very little food anywhere.

Their only hope is humanitarian aid from charities, but they have been tragically short on funding all year. Not enough donations have come in from the international community. Relief agencies are overwhelmed as more Somali families reach the breaking point.

Save the Children says hospital wards throughout Somalia are filled with malnourished children who are fighting for their life. Sadly many children have already perished and this could have been avoided if the world had reacted sooner with enough funding.

Save the Children’s Country Director for Somalia, Mohamud Hassan, said: “We are too late for those children and adults who have already died from hunger — tragic, avoidable, and excruciating deaths. Their deaths not only represent a catastrophe for their families, but demonstrate in most brutal form the growing global apathy for the victims of the climate crisis. “

So little attention is paid to the drought and hunger in Somalia. That is where you come in. By being a “food ambassador” for Somalia you can sound the alarm to educate others on the hunger emergency. You can write to your representatives in Congress urging increased food assistance for Somalia and other countries with food shortages.

Don’t wait around for an official declaration of famine in Somalia. “The purpose of a famine declaration is to call the international community into extraordinary action. Unfortunately, by the time famine is declared, it is already too late for many,” explains Sean Callahan, the president of Catholic Relief Services.

You can donate to the relief agencies fighting hunger in Somalia including the World Food Program (WFP), Save the Children, UNICEF, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Action against Hunger, Mercy Corps and others. Playing the online game Freerice also raises donations for WFP. Holding an event for Somalia relief at your school or workplace can raise donations and awareness.

And we need too because more children are on the verge of death by malnutrition.

Griffiths says “One of the doctors told me that they’re seeing an increase of 40-50 per cent more children than they did just a few weeks ago…..Very few could cry. And as we discovered when we left, we had the good fortune to hear a child cry, and we were told that when a child cries, there is a chance of survival.”

There is still a chance we could save Somalia from the pit of famine, but we need people to care and take action.

William Lambers partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book Ending World Hunger. His writings have been published by the New York Times, Newsweek, Chicago Sun-Times, History News Network and many other outlets.