More than 100 people have died from famine and diarrhoea in southern Somalia over a two-day period, according to the country’s prime minister.
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More than 100 people have died from famine and diarrhoea in southern Somalia over a two-day period, according to the country’s prime minister.
The government also says nearly 70 people have been killed since Friday in a cholera outbreak.
“It is a difficult situation for the pastoralists and their livestock. Some people have been hit by famine and diarrhoea at the same time. In the last 48 hours 110 people die due to famine and diarrhoea in Bay region,” Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire’s office said in a statement.
Earlier in the week it said that severe drought amounted to a national disaster.
The United Nations believes a million and a half people are affected by the drought and worsening food crisis in the country.
Last month the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF
said more than a quarter of a million children might suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year.
Thousands of people have been flocking to the capital Mogadishu in search of food aid, overwhelming local and international aid agencies.
In 2011, some 260,000 people starved to death due to famine in Somalia.