MOGADISHU: About 6.5 million people in Somalia face acute hunger due to drought, the government and the United Nations said on Tuesday, sounding the alarm days after the UN’s food agency warned that food aid could grind to a halt by April without new funding.
Somalia declared a national drought emergency in November after years of failed rains, and other countries in the region have also been hit.
More than a third of those facing acute malnutrition are children, Somalia’s government and the United Nations Somalia said in a joint statement. The crisis has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, with many crowding into camps in Mogadishu and other cities.
“The drought ... has deepened alarmingly, with soaring water prices, limited food supplies, dying livestock, and very little humanitarian funding,” George Conway, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said in a statement.
Hawo Abdi said she lost two children to illness after the drought laid waste to her homeland in Somalia’s Bay region.
“When I saw that the suffering was getting worse, I fled my home and came to ... Mogadishu,” she told Reuters from her shelter on the outskirts of the capital.
Last week, the UN World Food Programme put the number of those facing acute hunger at 4.4 million, and said it had already cut back its assistance to just over 600,000 people from 2.2 million earlier this year.
It was not clear whether the new figure reflected a sharp increase in those at risk or different counting methods.
The government and United Nations figures tally with those also released on Tuesday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which sets the global standard for determining the severity of a food crisis.
While rainfall in the April to June season could offer some relief, some 5.5 million people were expected to remain in the crisis level or worse, with 1.6 million people in the emergency level, the statement said.
Abdiyo Ali was forced to abandon her farm in the Lower Shabelle region.
“Our farms were destroyed, our livestock died, and water sources became too far away. We have nothing left to bring with us,” Ali told Reuters last week while preparing her food in a displaced people’s camp outside Mogadishu.
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Somalia warns 6.5 million face acute hunger due to drought
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Somalia warns 6.5 million face acute hunger due to drought
- UN and Somali government warn that more than a third of those facing acute malnutrition are children
- World Food Programme warned last week that food aid could grind to a halt by April
Cuba says attacking speedboat had nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition
- Firefight took place at a range of 20 meters, Cuba says
- Incoming crew originally set out on two vessels but ditched one
HAVANA: A commando of Cuban exiles who intended to infiltrate Cuba on a speedboat was armed with nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition, 13 rifles and 11 pistols, Cuban officials said on Friday, providing new details about Wednesday’s deadly exchange of gunfire at sea. The government in Havana has said 10 Cuban nationals coming from the United States entered Cuban waters and opened fire on a border guard vessel, leading Cuban forces to return fire killing four and wounding six others, who were taken into custody.
In an attempt to dispel doubts about its account to date, senior Cuban Interior Ministry officers displayed the captured armaments from the studio on a special television program, including bins full of at least some of the 12,846 recovered rounds. They also showed pictures of the vessels, each peppered with bullet holes from the firefight they said took place at a range of 20 meters (66 feet).
The confrontation took place at a fraught moment in US-Cuban relations, with US President Donald Trump pressuring the island by imposing a virtual oil blockade after capturing and ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a crucial Cuban ally, on January 3.
Cuba has identified the assailants as Cuban exiles, some of whom had been previously placed on a list of accused terrorists, who came from the United States with the intent to sow chaos and attack military units on the Communist-ruled island.
“The intent of this group is to infiltrate, to promote public disorder. To incite the people to unite. To carry out something violent. Attack military units in order to incite social unrest and to unite the people in order to steal the revolution. That has been duly proven,” said Col. Victor Alvarez of the Interior Ministry.
Cuba says response ‘proportional’
US politicians have expressed skepticism over Cuba’s version of events. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said his government would independently investigate, adding that it was not a US operation and that no US government personnel were involved.
Cuban officers said the infiltrators set out from Marathon in the Florida Keys on two vessels but ditched one at some point due to technical difficulties. They united on one speedboat, which a US official said was reported stolen in Florida. Cuba said it recovered a drone, radios, knives, a portable power plant, bolt cutters and other materiel. They also found emblems of the November 30th Movement and People’s Self-Defense, anti-communist groups that oppose the Cuban government.
Cuba says a patrol of five border guard members on a 9-meter boat spotted the incoming vessel shortly after 7 a.m., with some members of the incoming crew in the water, about one nautical mile off a cay on the Caribbean island’s northern coast, about 100 miles (160 km) from Marathon.
The infiltrators opened fire at a distance of 185 meters, striking the captain of the Cuban vessel in the abdomen, Cuba said. Bleeding heavily, the wounded captain remained at the helm and steered toward the enemy vessel, leading to a firefight at a distance of about 20 meters, the officers said.
Cuba called its response “proportional.”
“It is a defensive model that practically never uses firearms, and the use of firearms is proportional to the type of action being carried out against our force,” said Interior Ministry Col. Ybey Carballo.
The captured Cuban nationals were receiving medical care and face charges including armed aggression, illegal entry into national territory, crimes associated with terrorist acts, and arms trafficking, prosecutor Edward Robert Campbell told the program. He said they face prison terms of up to 10 to 15 years for the lesser offenses and 20 to 30 years — or even the death penalty — for the more serious charges.
In an attempt to dispel doubts about its account to date, senior Cuban Interior Ministry officers displayed the captured armaments from the studio on a special television program, including bins full of at least some of the 12,846 recovered rounds. They also showed pictures of the vessels, each peppered with bullet holes from the firefight they said took place at a range of 20 meters (66 feet).
The confrontation took place at a fraught moment in US-Cuban relations, with US President Donald Trump pressuring the island by imposing a virtual oil blockade after capturing and ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a crucial Cuban ally, on January 3.
Cuba has identified the assailants as Cuban exiles, some of whom had been previously placed on a list of accused terrorists, who came from the United States with the intent to sow chaos and attack military units on the Communist-ruled island.
“The intent of this group is to infiltrate, to promote public disorder. To incite the people to unite. To carry out something violent. Attack military units in order to incite social unrest and to unite the people in order to steal the revolution. That has been duly proven,” said Col. Victor Alvarez of the Interior Ministry.
Cuba says response ‘proportional’
US politicians have expressed skepticism over Cuba’s version of events. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said his government would independently investigate, adding that it was not a US operation and that no US government personnel were involved.
Cuban officers said the infiltrators set out from Marathon in the Florida Keys on two vessels but ditched one at some point due to technical difficulties. They united on one speedboat, which a US official said was reported stolen in Florida. Cuba said it recovered a drone, radios, knives, a portable power plant, bolt cutters and other materiel. They also found emblems of the November 30th Movement and People’s Self-Defense, anti-communist groups that oppose the Cuban government.
Cuba says a patrol of five border guard members on a 9-meter boat spotted the incoming vessel shortly after 7 a.m., with some members of the incoming crew in the water, about one nautical mile off a cay on the Caribbean island’s northern coast, about 100 miles (160 km) from Marathon.
The infiltrators opened fire at a distance of 185 meters, striking the captain of the Cuban vessel in the abdomen, Cuba said. Bleeding heavily, the wounded captain remained at the helm and steered toward the enemy vessel, leading to a firefight at a distance of about 20 meters, the officers said.
Cuba called its response “proportional.”
“It is a defensive model that practically never uses firearms, and the use of firearms is proportional to the type of action being carried out against our force,” said Interior Ministry Col. Ybey Carballo.
The captured Cuban nationals were receiving medical care and face charges including armed aggression, illegal entry into national territory, crimes associated with terrorist acts, and arms trafficking, prosecutor Edward Robert Campbell told the program. He said they face prison terms of up to 10 to 15 years for the lesser offenses and 20 to 30 years — or even the death penalty — for the more serious charges.
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