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Somalia

UNICEF Somalia Humanitarian Situation Report #2: 1-28 February 2018

Attachments

Highlights

  • In 2018, 44,790 severely malnourished children, including 2,516 children with medical complications, have been admitted in UNICEF supported treatment programmes. The number of admissions to date exceeds the number of admissions during the same period in 2017 by 33 percent. The increasing trend in admissions highlights a sustained risk to of malnutrition.

  • UNICEF and partners have launched a national measles vaccination campaign aiming to reach 4.7 million children. The campaign started in Puntland in January, where 933,406 children were reached (93 percent coverage). The campaign is now planned to continue in south and central states, as well as Somaliland where an additional 3.7 million children will be targeted.

  • In response to continued critical needs for emergency access to safe water, UNICEF and partners supported an additional 40,500 people from 28 displaced person settlements through emergency water trucking and water voucher provision in Nugaal, Bay, and Banadir regions.

  • UNICEF held inception workshops in Puntland and Somaliland for a new Children on the Move programme aimed at mitigating against the effects of child migration, and provide services for children at risk of violence, exploitation and abuse whilst on the move. The workshops trained ministry and civil society child protection workers on key strategies to identify children at risk and on the development of case management for children who are moving within Somalia and across borders.

Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs

The humanitarian situation in Somalia remains critical due to ongoing impacts of drought, displacement and conflict. As per the FSNAU-FEWSNET 2017 Post Deyr findings, 5.4 million people are still in need of urgent assistance, including 2.8 million children. An estimated 1.2 million children are or will be acutely malnourished over the next year, including 232,000 children at risk of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Over 4.4 million people need humanitarian WASH services, with 3.5 out of 5 people without adequate water to meet basic needs. More than 5.7 million people require basic health services, including critical needs in maternal and child health, as one in seven Somali children die before the age of five. Disease outbreaks such as acute watery diarrhoea (AWD)/cholera and measles continue to represent a major threat to children, with over 1,000 cases of AWD/cholera (56 per cent children under 5) and 2,500 cases of measles reported in 2018. Over 3 million children, out of 4.9 million in country, are estimated to be out of school. More than 2.1 million people have been displaced, including over 1 million in the last year alone; and displacement flows continue at critical levels into areas such as Baidoa in Bay Region, which has received between 500 and 2,000 new arrivals per week since mid-January, 2018. 4 Exclusion and discrimination of socially marginalized groups continue to exacerbate high levels of acute humanitarian needs. More than 76 percent of recorded gender-based violence (GBV) survivors are reported to be from IDP communities. Grave violations against children continue at worrying rates, with 402 cases, mostly abductions, recruitment and use, and killing/maiming reported in January 2018.