In a message on Twitter, Guterres emphasized that Somalia is at a tipping point and millions of inhabitants are facing extreme levels of acute hunger.

Two days ago, the UN condemned that, after more than a year of warnings about the unsustainable numbers of hungry people in Somalia, necessary funds to cover the emergency remain unsolved.

Food shortages are concentrated in south-central Somalia and women, particularly pregnant and lactating women, as well as children under the age of five, are among the most vulnerable, the UN said.

“It is likely that famine and death are already popping,” it warned, and recalled what happened in 2011, as nearly half of the more than 250,000 people who died of starvation were infants.

The international organization estimates that part of Somalia will be hit by a severe famine between October and December 2022, as a result of drought and increased global prices.

According to UN reports, some 20.5 million people in the Horn of Africa are plunged into “a dire and entirely avoidable hunger crisis,” which experts consider as unacceptable.

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