Over 300,000 Somalis flee conflict, drought this year

More than 300,000 people in Somalia have been displaced this year due to drought and armed conflict in the eastern African country, a humanitarian group said in a report.

"The crushing effect of drought has stripped rural communities of their crops, livestock and water sources, while armed conflict closes in on their homes. We are now likely to see 2.1 million Somali people suffering from hunger by December and into 2020," Victor Moses, country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), was quoted as saying in the report.

"This population needs aid. But when insecurity restricts us from delivering it, many people are forced to leave conflict-hit areas to seek it out," he added.

"Somali people that fled the country for protection elsewhere are now coming back to find themselves in a desperate situation. Armed conflict restricts opportunities, the impact of drought is severely affecting livelihoods and more often than not, people end up relying on aid to survive," the report said

The report quoted Faduma Abdinor Mohamed (39), one of the displaced mothers, as saying: "There's no harvest from the farms. My children lost their father because of conflict, and we don't have a farm or any livestock. The children lack education and food. I'm a woman, I have no opportunity to help my children. I have no job opportunities."

"This year's UN humanitarian aid appeal for Somalia has requested $1.08 billion for humanitarian programmes in 2019, marking it one of the largest crises in the World," the report noted.

However, the report said only 62% of the appeal is funded and is unlikely to meet the target by the end of the year.

Somalia, which has been wracked by civil war for over two decades, has been grappling with a lack of cash and is now determined to collect more tax revenue from its vast ports and other sources to pay civil servants' salaries and provide services.