Drought in Somalia killed as many as 43,000 people last year – half of them children

AP: A woman and a child wait to be given a spot to settle at a camp for displaced people on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia in September 2022. A UN report says an estimated 43,000 people died amid the longest drought on record in Somalia last year. Half of them were children.

Nairobi, Kenya: 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.

Nairobi, Kenya: 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.

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 percent 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, which killed a quarter of a million people.