SNA (Tokyo) — Millions of Somalis are facing starvation in the coming months as 90% of the Horn of Africa nation experiences a severe drought.

USAID Somalia estimates that, as a result of climate abnormalities, “6.7 million people are expected to require lifesaving emergency food aid, and more than 300,000 are likely to face catastrophic levels of food insecurity” in the immediate future.

This figure represents nearly half of Somalia’s total population of about 17 million.

The World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Somalia, Mamunur Rahman Malik, added, “half of the country’s children, or 1.8 million, face acute severe malnutrition.” Grimly, he warned, “half of these children may die if they do not receive urgent medical treatment.”

WHO estimates that 1 out of every 10 children have already been seeking medical treatment for preventable diseases; illnesses which thrive as a consequence of famine. Most health centers in Somalia are understaffed and struggling to care for the massive influx of young people.

Observers are concerned that this crisis could eclipse the 2011 famine, which killed over a quarter of a million people, half of them children.

In an attempt to head off the most dire predictions, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has its increased funding projections for Somalia from US$1.46 billion to US$2.26 billion.

Also, Hamza Abdi Barre, prime minister of Somalia’s Mogadishu-based, internationally-recognized government, met this week with UN Special Representative James Swan to discuss stabilization efforts, including famine countermeasures, in the areas in the southern part of the nation under the regime’s control.

However, Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, the Mogadishu regime’s presidential envoy for drought response, has argued that outside support has been lacking, telling The Guardian in a recent interview that the international community was ignoring the impending famine and failing to meet its longstanding pledge of letting poor nations access a climate fund to mitigate the crisis.

“We are living with the deadly consequences of climate change in Somalia,” he reportedly said. “Millions of children are malnourished, many will die, and we don’t have one penny of that climate fund.”

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has also linked the emerging famine to the climate crisis, stating during a recent visit to Somalia that “these families are the least responsible for global warming, yet they are being hit the hardest. It is tragic and it is shameful, and the world should not look away.”

Somalia has been in the grips of a civil war which has been ongoing for three decades after the collapse of the authoritarian Siad Barre regime in 1991. Currently, the northern part of the country has become relatively stable under the effectively independent Somaliland government based in Hargeisa, while the southern part of the country is still experiencing active fighting between the Mogadishu regime and rebel groups such as Al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam.

In the midst of this political instability, the country has also been experiencing a series of failed rainy seasons, creating the worst drought in more than seven decades, according to the projections of the University of California, Santa Barbara Climate Hazards Center.

For breaking news, follow on Twitter @ShingetsuNews