Key messages
- From February to September 2020, the population in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phases 3 (Crisis) and 4 (Emergency) is expected to rise by 40 percent, from 1.1 million to 1.6 million people. An additional 2.9 million people are projected to be in IPC Phase 2 (stressed).
- Six out of eight rainy seasons have been poor in Somalia since 2016, including late and erratic rains during the 2019 Gu season (April-June), which produced the lowest Gu cereal harvest since 2011 in Somalia.
- An exceptionally above-average 2019 Deyr rainy season (October-December) enabled increased production and employment opportunities for rural communities. However, severe flash and riverine floods submerged crops and caused large-scale displacement, mostly along the Shabelle river in central Somalia. Abundant rain and cyclone Pawan in December created favourable conditions for desert locust to reproduce across Somalia.
- Although damage from the ongoing desert locust upsurge has so far been limited and localized, the risk for both pasture and crops remains high throughout 2020 given the ever-expanding areas affected and continued hatching and formation of hoppers and swarms.
- FAO is conducting a countrywide animal vaccination campaign against contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, targeting 14.5 million goats (belonging to 2 million people) while continuing cash-for-work and Cash+ programmes for pastoralists and coastal communities.
- FAO urgently seeks funding in early 2020 to assist rural populations facing acute food insecurity and those at risk of being affected by desert locust infestation, both under the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) and FAO’s Desert locust crisis appeal (January-December 2020).