Report: 43,000 Estimated Dead in Somalia Drought Last Year

People arrive at a displacement camp on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, Sept. 21, 2022 amid a drought. (AP)
People arrive at a displacement camp on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, Sept. 21, 2022 amid a drought. (AP)
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Report: 43,000 Estimated Dead in Somalia Drought Last Year

People arrive at a displacement camp on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, Sept. 21, 2022 amid a drought. (AP)
People arrive at a displacement camp on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, Sept. 21, 2022 amid a drought. (AP)

A new report says an estimated 43,000 people died amid the longest drought on record in Somalia last year and half of them likely were children.

It is the first official death toll announced in the drought withering large parts of the Horn of Africa.

At least 18,000 people are forecast to die in the first six months of this year.

“The current crisis is far from over,” says the report released Monday by the World Health Organization and the United Nations children’s agency and carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Somalia and neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya are facing a sixth consecutive failed rainy season while rising global food prices complicate the hunger crisis.

The UN and partners earlier this year said they were no longer forecasting a formal famine declaration for Somalia for now but called the situation “extremely critical” with more than 6 million people hungry in that country alone.

Famine is the extreme lack of food and a significant death rate from outright starvation or malnutrition combined with diseases like cholera. A formal famine declaration means data shows more than a fifth of households have extreme food gaps, more than 30% of children are acutely malnourished and over two people out of 10,000 are dying every day.

Some humanitarian and climate officials this year have warned that trends are worse than in the 2011 famine in Somalia in which a quarter-million people died.

Millions of livestock have died in the current crisis compounded by climate change and insecurity as Somalia battles thousands of fighters with al-Qaida’s East Africa affiliate, al-Shabab. The UN migration agency says 3.8 million people are displaced, a record high.

A food security assessment released last month said nearly a half-million children in Somalia are likely to be severely malnourished this year.

This time, the world is looking elsewhere, many humanitarian officials say.

“Many of the traditional donors have washed their hands and focused on Ukraine,” the UN resident coordinator in Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula, told the visiting US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, during a briefing in Mogadishu in January.



UK Police Arrest Two Men over Alleged Hezbollah Links

A protester holding a flag of Lebanon's Hezbollah during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. AP Photo/Emrah Gurel
A protester holding a flag of Lebanon's Hezbollah during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. AP Photo/Emrah Gurel
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UK Police Arrest Two Men over Alleged Hezbollah Links

A protester holding a flag of Lebanon's Hezbollah during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. AP Photo/Emrah Gurel
A protester holding a flag of Lebanon's Hezbollah during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. AP Photo/Emrah Gurel

British counter-terrorism police said on Thursday they had arrested two men accused of being linked to the banned group Hezbollah, saying their investigation involved alleged activity both overseas and in Britain.

Detectives from London's Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) arrested a 39-year-old man in north London on suspicion of being a member of a proscribed group, preparing acts of terrorism and being involved in funding for the purposed of terrorism, Reuters said.

A second man, 35, was arrested in west London on suspicion of being a member of a banned organization.

"Our investigation remains ongoing, but I hope that these arrests show we will take robust action against anyone here whom we suspect as being involved in terrorist activity regardless of whether their activity is focused here in the UK or elsewhere," said commander Dominic Murphy, head of the CTC.

Police said the investigation related to the Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah which Britain outlawed in 2019 when it classified it as a terrorist group. There was no immediate threat to the public, they said.

The two men were released on police bail until mid-July.