Mothers and children wait for assistance at a feeding center in south central Somalia. World Vision, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), and local organizations have reached nearly 33,000 children and 2,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women with emergency nutrition.

Millions of people in Somalia are experiencing dangerous levels of hunger. At least 3 million people there need humanitarian aid, the U.N. says. The majority are in south central Somalia, including more than 200,000 acutely malnourished children under 5.

World Vision works in Baidoa, Bay region, at the epicenter of the chronic food insecurity, along with WFP and local partners, providing emergency feeding, health care, water and sanitation.

Francois Batalingaya, World Vision’s national director there warns that “the world waited too late” to prevent massive deaths after the 2010 drought. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network estimated that 260,000 people died in the Somalia famine of 2010-2012; half of them were children under 5.

“We will not relent as long as we are able save a child’s life in Somalia,” Francois says.

 

Photo ©2015 John Kisimir/World Vision