Highlights
Flooding affects 132,000 people and displaces 60,000 - UNICEF and partners scale up response interventions. 2,055,618 children under-10 in Central and Northeast Somalia are vaccinated against measles during National Immunization Day campaigns. Additional campaigns planned for December. Somalia launches the inactivated polio vaccine.
Against an appeal of US$ 111,705,413 to meet the humanitarian needs of women and children in Somalia in 2015, as at 15 December UNICEF is 45 per cent funded.
Situation Overview and Humanitarian Needs
High levels of humanitarian needs persist in Somalia; according to the updated 2015 post-Gu Somalia Food Security Assessment, re-estimated based on new population figures, about 4.9 million people are in need of assistance, 308,700 children under-5 are acutely malnourished, 55,800 of them severely malnourished and 1.1 million remain in a protracted internal displacement situation. This is a substantial increase over projections made earlier in 2015. Food security is expected to improve between January and March of 2016, though the majority of the country will remain Stressed according to FEWS Net November Food Security Outlook Update. Exceptions include riverine communities in Middle Shabelle, expected to remain in Crisis due to El Niño flooding, and agropastoral areas in parts of Somaliland where conditions have been drier than usual. Cumulatively, since the onset of the Deyr rainy season in October, flooding has affected 132,000 people and displaced nearly 60,000. Nearly 42,000 of these were affected by tropical cyclones Chapala and Megh, which made a landfall in Yemen but caused significant damage in some coastal areas of Puntland and Somaliland. While the amount of rainfall is subsiding and river levels receding, the risk of flooding remains high. Overall, 70 per cent of the regions of Central South Somalia are reporting increases in Acute Watery Diarrhoea cases and response to cholera outbreaks in Jowhar, Kismayo and Mogadishu is ongoing. Armed violence erupted in Gaalkacyo, killing 20, injuring 120 and causing the displacement of over 90,000 people including 40,000 IDPs. Somalia continues to respond to the influx, albeit much reduced, of returnees and refugees fleeing the conflict in Yemen; as at end November, the number stands at 29,813