Somali famine kills 29,000 children – US estimates

The drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of five, according to US estimates, the first time such a precise death toll has been released related to the Horn of Africa crisis.

The UN has said that tens of thousands of people have died in the drought, the worst in Somalia in 60 years. The UN says 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, a statistic that suggests the death toll of small children will rise.

Nancy Lindborg, an official with the US government aid arm, told a congressional committee in Washington that the US estimates that more than 29,000 children under five have died in the last 90 days in southern Somalia.

That number is based on nutrition and mortality surveys verified by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The UN has declared three new regions in Somalia famine zones, bringing the total number to five. Out of a population of roughly 7.5 million, the UN says 3.2 million Somalis are in need of immediate lifesaving assistance. Getting aid to Somalia has been made more difficult because al Qaida-linked militants control much of the country’s most desperate areas.

Timeline of drought and hunger in the Horn of Africa

February 17, 2011: Malnutrition has increased in the last six months in southern Somalia and 2.4 million people, 32 per cent of the population, remain in crisis, UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, says after a visit to the region.

June 9: The Dabaab refugee camp in Kenya is facing a humanitarian emergency due to severe overcrowding, mainly with Somalis who had fled fighting back home, Doctors Without Borders say.

July 13: Unicef delivers food and medical aid by plane to Baidoa in central Somalia, which is controlled by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab.

19: The death rate among drou-ght-stricken Somalis arriving at refugee camps in Ethiopia has reached several times above levels seen in emergency situations, the UN refugees agency says.

20: The UN officially declares famine in the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of southern Somalia.

22: Somalia’s insurgent Shebab say a ban on foreign aid groups remains in force and rejects a UN declaration that parts of the country had been hit by famine.

24: The International Red Cross says it has handed out 400 tonnes of food in drought-hit parts of rebel-held southern Somalia.

25: The World Bank pledges more than $500 million (348 million euros) to aid the region, as United Nations aid chiefs meet in Rome to discuss ramping up relief efforts. Non-governmental organisations criticise the donors’ efforts.

27: The World Food Programme begins airlifting emergency supplies to Mogadishu.

29: The UN asks for an extra $1.4 billion to help 12.4 million people. The UN agencies and their partners have so far received donations of one billion dollars.

August 1: Tens of thousands of Somalis have already been killed by the famine and hundreds of thousands are threatened, according to the UN’s Amos. She says nearly 3.7 million people in Somalia are in need of aid.

The WFP sends its sixth plane since the beginning of the airlift. In the Dabaab camp in eastern Kenya, the UN children’s agency UNICEF launches a mass vaccination against polio and measles.

2: Uganda may become the next country to fall victim to severe food shortages, the UN food agency warns.

3: Famine has spread to three new regions of Somalia. The three areas are the Afgoye corridor IDP settlement, the Mogadishu IDP community and in the Balaad and Adale districts of Middle Shabelle.

4: The African Union postpones until August 25 a conference to raise funds that had been due next week. The ICRC decides to increase its aid in central and southern Somalia. It calls upon donor nations to double its Somalia budget.