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COUNTRY INFORMATION: (CIA World Factbook, FAO)

• Population: 10.5 million

• Size: Slightly smaller than Texas

• Life Expectancy: 54 years

• Literacy Rate: 37.8%

• Access to Clean Water: 30%

• Population Living on Less than $1 a Day: 43%

• Child Labor (children ages 5-14): 40%

• Key Exports: Livestock

• Climate: Principally desert, with varying degrees of rainfall in the northeast and southwest; torrid in the north and south.

• Average Annual Rainfall from 1900-1930: .83 inch

• Average Annual Rainfall from 1990-2012: .91 inch

• Hottest Temperature 1900-1930: May 81°F

• Hottest Temperature 1990-2012: May 83.5°F

SITUATION BACKGROUND: (CIA World Factbook, OCHA)

Somalia gained its independence from British and Italian colonizers in the 1960s. Shortly after his election in 1969, President Abdi Rashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated, giving way to the Somali army. After an eight-month territorial war against the Ethiopians in 1977, Somalia lost much of its army, and had to acknowledge defeat. President Barre fled the country in January 1991, leaving Somalia in the hands of a number of conflicting clan-based guerrilla groups. Years of anarchy and civil war followed and between January 1991 to August 2000, Somalia had no central government. In 1991, northern clans declared an independent breakaway nation, the Somaliland Republic. Somaliland has remained relatively peaceful, but is still not recognized by any government.

By 1992, Somalia faced Africa’s worst drought of the century coupled with a devastating civil war. Somalia plunged into a severe famine that killed 300,000 people and led over a half-million people to flee to Kenya. Intervention efforts by the US and UN failed and peace negotiations between warlords and militias proved to be fruitless. In 2000, a parliamentary government was formed, but was unable to establish control of the country. It wasn’t until 2012 when a new internationally-backed government was installed.

Somalia’s suffering only worsened once Islamist insurgents, including the Al-Shabaab terrorist group, gained control of parts of central and southern Somalia in 2006. Due to the ongoing violence and two failed planting seasons, in 2011; a severe drought consumed the country and caused thousands of people to flee to Ethiopia and Kenya.

Somalia is finally experiencing some political stability, but there are still 731,000 Somalis in need of urgent humanitarian food and nutrition assistance, while an additional 3.2 million people struggle to meet every-day food needs. Somalia faces high levels of acute malnutrition and the under-five mortality rate in Somalia is the fourth highest in the world. Approximately 1.1 million people are displaced and live in overcrowded, unsanitary settlements with limited access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services.

About 60 percent of the population in Somalia is composed of nomadic pastoralists (a branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock). The recent droughts in Somalia have reduced the main source of their income.

SITUATION OVERVIEW: (Oxfam, Relief Web, Aljazeera)

Somalis experienced the worst drought in six decades in 2010-2012, resulting in the deaths of 258,000 people. Reports from UN revealed that half of them were children under the age of five.

Under the siege of Al-Shabaab, an affiliate of Al Qaeda, humanitarian efforts to distributing food were met with resistance, causing food prices to rise and famine to spread to other areas of the country.

The southern regions, already destabilized by civil war, were hit by floods in November 2015, devastating up to 90,000 people. The UN reported that 42,000 additional people were displaced as a result.

The government is incapacitated in dealing with insurgents and violence in the region has caused an increase in the number of IDPs (internally displaced people). Due to prevailing insecurity in the region, there are a total of 1.2 million people in Somalia either as refugees or asylum-seekers.

Currently, Somalia is facing food insecurity similar to 2010 when the combination of reduced access, declining funds and consecutive failed rainy seasons led to Somalia's most devastating famine in 2011 that killed 258,000 people.

PRIORITIES AND NEEDS: (OCHA, Concern Worldwide, UNICEF)

Climate change is impacting the lives of Somalis on all fronts. Already one of the world’s poorest countries, it is extremely vulnerable to the changes of climate. With your group, prioritize and narrow down the following concerns to create a short and long-term solution for climate change in Somalia.

• Food Insecurity: Heavily dependent on subsistence farming and pastoralism, Somalis have not been able to produce food due to droughts and the ongoing conflict. The changes in weather are undermining the capacity of large pastoral parts, causing population movements and raising tensions over dwindling key resources. Over 3.2 million Somalis are unable to meet their basic food need; a 20% increase from 2014. 80% of those facing food insecurity are women and children.

• Nutrition: Access to nutrition continues to be a problem in Somalia, as one in seven children under the age of five--or 218,000 children--is estimated to be acutely malnourished. About 44,000 of them are severely malnourished and are at risk of death if they do not receive urgent medical treatment and therapeutic food. Three in four acutely malnourished children are in southern and central Somalia, where the civil war is most brutal.

• Insecurity: Living in a constant state of fear and strife for the past 25 years, over 1.2 million internally displaced people continue to face human rights violations such as the killing of civilians and gender-based violence and discrimination. Military operations have singlehandedly caused 80,000 people to be temporarily displaced as the efforts to push Al-Shabaab out of the southern and central regions have intensified. Additionally, the depletion of natural resources – a driving cause of conflict - undermines livelihoods, increases vulnerability to disaster and puts human security at risk.

• WASH: Only one in three Somalis have access to safe water. The access to safe means of human waste disposal stands at 23 percent. Poor access to safe drinking water and lack of adequate sanitation facilities coupled with poor hygienic practices are major threats for the survival and development of children in Somalia. Those living in crowded settlements remain at high risk of waterborne diseases due to inadequate access to basic sanitation and hygiene services. Natural disasters, such as droughts have also contributed to the shortage of clean water across the country.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• Concern Worldwide’s Programs in Somalia:

• Relief Web: “Humanitarian Bulletin”:

• UNHCR: Country operations profile: Somalia:

• ReliefWeb: Humanitarian Overview:

• OCHA: Crisis Overview:

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CIA World Factbook

Did you know?

• Somalia is the only country in the world that does not possess a central form of government.

• Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia, is an extremely dangerous city where different clans constantly battle for control.

• The national animal of Somalia is the leopard.

• An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 children, sometimes as young as 9, are currently enlisted in the Somali armed forces.

Kieran McConville/Concern Worldwide

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GLOBAL CLIMATE IMPACT

FOCUS ON SOMALIA

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