By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Programme said on Friday its life-saving food and nutrition assistance in Somalia could grind to a halt by April unless new funding is secured, putting millions of people at risk of worsening hunger.
An estimated 4.4 million people face crisis-level food insecurity, with nearly one million of them experiencing severe hunger, due to the impact of failed rainy seasons, conflict and declining humanitarian funding, the WFP said.
"The situation is deteriorating at an alarming rate," Ross Smith, WFP director of emergency preparedness and response, said in a statement.
"Families have lost everything, and many are already being pushed to the brink. Without immediate emergency food support, conditions will worsen quickly," Smith said.
Somalia declared a national drought emergency in November after recurrent seasons of poor rainfall, and other countries in the region have also been hit.
The WFP, the largest humanitarian agency in Somalia, said it has already scaled back assistance from 2.2 million people earlier this year to just over 600,000 due to funding shortages. Nutrition programmes for pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children have also been sharply reduced.
The agency said it faces a critical moment similar to a crisis in 2022, when famine was narrowly averted following large-scale international support. It is seeking $95 million to sustain operations between March and August.
"If our already reduced assistance ends, the humanitarian, security, and economic consequences will be devastating, with the effects felt far beyond Somalia's borders," Smith said.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevinand Kirsti Knolle;Editing by Linda Pasquini and Helen Popper)
