No Drought In Somalia?- These Are False Claims
A number of claims have been traced from the trending #tag “don’t_lie_about_somalia” and among them are comments saying there is no drought in Somalia.
These comments were addressing a facebook post by the France24 English posted on 20th October 2022 highlighting the famine in Somalia which came as a result of increased droughts.
FACTCHECK
According to the October Somalia Situation , a report by UNICEF, there was severe drought in Somalia which affected more than 6.7 million people in 28 districts. There were also 39,944 new admissions of children admitted for treatment of severe wasting caused by famine.
Areas such as Banadir, Baidoa, Kismayo, Xudur, and Beletweyne had high admissions in October 2022
According to the World Food Programme’s article, areas like Galkayo had not experienced rain yet they were in the middle of a rainy season.
Reports by the Famine Early Warning Network, indicate that most of Somalia experienced little to no rainfall during the November 1-10 period. However, according to preliminary CHIRPS remote-sensing data, most of the southern regions received 5-25 millimeters (mm) of rainfall during the November 1-10 period.
According to UNICEF, the severe drought in Somalia affects more than 6.7 million people, while around 1.5 million children are likely to be extremely malnourished by the end of 2022. An estimated 6.4 million people are facing severe water shortages, and more than one million have been displaced due to the drought.
An article by the UN refugee agency published on 29th September 2022, reported that over one million Somalis were displaced by droughts since January 2021.
Verdict:
The claim is false and misleading, as of October 2022 there were droughts in Somalia and people in this area are still facing famine as a result of droughts.
This fact-check was produced by Debunk Media Initiative with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network and African Fact-Checking Alliance network.
