The gloomy forecasts are contained in a joint report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), published by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases, released on Monday in the capital of this country also terrorized by the Islamist insurgency.

Half of the deaths last year were children, the report certifies, whose forecast is pessimistic because it asserts that ‘the current crisis is far from over’ and adds that this is the sixth consecutive year that Somalia, Ethiopia, and neighboring Kenya, suffer the effects of the lack of rainfall.

The phenomenon, a consequence of climate change, is even more serious due to the increase in food prices on the world market, the first effect of which is famine, the report adds.

The trend is for the crisis to worsen, in particular the Somali crisis, which may exceed the 250,000 deaths caused by the 2011 famine.

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