Unless humanitarian assistance is urgently scaled up, famine is expected in late 2022 due to unprecedented multi‑season drought

Highlights

Famine is expected to occur in Bay Region between October and December 2022, if humanitarian assistance is not urgently scaled up.

About 6.7 million people, over 40 percent of the total population, are projected to face severe acute food insecurity, including over 300 000 people in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe).

The dire food insecurity situation is the consequence of a prolonged drought that began in late 2020, compounded by the protracted conflict and hikes in international prices of foodstuffs and fuel caused by the war in Ukraine.

As meteorological forecasts point to below-average October–December 2022 “Deyr” rains, food security conditions are expected to deteriorate.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations