Somalia, the East African country known as the "Horn of Africa", is experiencing a record-breaking severe drought. The Ministry of Health of Somalia, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) yesterday (20 The worst drought in 40 years killed about 43,000 people last year, half of them children under five, according to a study released on Sunday.

(Associated Press file photo)

[Instant News/Comprehensive Report] Somalia, the East African country known as the "Horn of Africa", is experiencing a record-breaking severe drought. The Ministry of Health of Somalia, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund The worst drought in 40 years killed about 43,000 people last year, half of whom were children under the age of five, according to a study released by UNICEF yesterday (20th).

According to comprehensive foreign media reports, parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia have had almost no rainfall for five consecutive rainy seasons. The drought has killed millions of livestock and turned farmland into barren land. People can only migrate and try to find food and water. .

The report by the authorities and the United Nations used a statistical model to estimate that between 18,100 and 34,200 Somalis may not survive the drought in the first six months of this year.

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Local weather forecasts also predict that the sixth rainy season in the Horn of Africa will inevitably lead to scarce rainfall, and many aid agencies have warned that "an unprecedented humanitarian disaster is coming".

Although the famine threshold has not yet been reached, the United Nations says more than half of Somalia's population will need humanitarian aid this year.

Response plans for this year's drought crisis in Somalia require at least $2.6 billion (TW$79 billion) in funding, but less than 15 percent has been funded so far, the United Nations says.

"Traditional sources of aid have been diverted to Ukraine," said the UN humanitarian official in Somalia, as the international community has chosen to put aside the serious crisis facing the East African country due to the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Somalia is considered by the United Nations to be one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, but the government has struggled for years to deal with the Islamic terrorist group al-Shabab, which is trying to overthrow the African Union and the government, let alone the climate crisis .