{"id":250134,"date":"2016-09-21T07:35:07","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T07:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=250134"},"modified":"2016-09-21T07:35:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T07:35:07","slug":"somalia-food-crisis-300000-children-need-help-says-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/09\/somalia-food-crisis-300000-children-need-help-says-un\/","title":{"rendered":"Somalia food crisis: 300,000 children need help, says UN"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nearly five million people in Somalia are suffering from a shortage of food due to poor rainfall, floods and displacement, the United Nations says.<\/p>\n
More than 300,000 children under the age of five are severely malnourished and require urgent assistance.<\/p>\n
Most of those in need of help have been internally displaced following decades of conflict.<\/p>\n
Malnutrition levels in Somalia have increased over the last six months with nearly half the population affected.<\/p>\n
The number of people without enough food has increased by 300,000 since February.<\/p>\n
Peter de Clercq, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said those providing aid were ready to “scale up” their response to help families struggling to find food.<\/p>\n
But he noted that funding for the Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan has reached just 32% of its target.<\/p>\n
The UN report, released on Tuesday, suggests that crop production was severely hit by insufficient rainfall and flash flooding in southern and central Somalia, “the breadbasket of the country”.<\/p>\n
The agency said continued population displacement following decades of conflict and attacks by extremist groups such as al-Shabab was a major contributing factor.<\/p>\n