UAE and US join call for calm after Somaliland violence

UK, Qatar, Somalia and Turkey have also expressed concern after fighting in the region killed at least 34

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  The UN says 12 million people in Ethiopia, 5.6 million in Somalia and 4.3 million in Kenya are 'acutely food insecure' after years of drought. All photos: Eduardo Soteras / AFP

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  The region's people, many of them herders and subsistence farmers, are enduring their fifth consecutive poor rainy season

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  The UN says 1.7 million people have been driven from their homes by a lack of water and pasture

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  The Horn of Africa is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, and extreme weather events are occurring with increased frequency and intensity

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  Eight of the 13 past rainy seasons have brought below average rainfall, according to the Climate Hazards Centre in the US

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  That has brought hardship for millions

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  The last famine was declared in Somalia in 2011, when 260,000 people - half of them children under the age of six - died of hunger, partly because the international community did not act fast enough, says the UN

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  Crops were ravaged by a locust invasion between 2019 and 2021. They have since been wiped out, while livestock has also suffered

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  UN humanitarian agency OCHA estimated in November that 9.5 million cattle had died

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  The war in Ukraine has contributed to soaring food and fuel costs, disrupted global supply chains and diverted aid money away from the region

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  Somalia has been hit hardest, with the drought affecting more than half of its population - about 7.85 million people

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  In December, OCHA said the nation was not yet in the grip of full-blown famine thanks to the response of aid agencies and local communities

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  But people were nevertheless suffering "catastrophic" food shortages, it said, and if assistance was not scaled up, famine could be expected in southern Somalia as soon as April

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  Rural people in Baidoa and Burhakaba districts, and displaced people in Baidoa town and the capital Mogadishu were most at risk

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  OCHA said that by June, the number of people at risk of starvation was expected to more than triple to 727,000 from October

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  According to the UN children's agency Unicef, almost two million children across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia require urgent treatment for severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of hunger

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  It said in September that 730 children had died between January and July in nutrition centres in Somalia, but that the real numbers were likely to be much higher

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  Lacking water, milk and food, and often living in squalid conditions, the youngest become so weak they are vulnerable to diseases such as measles and cholera

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  Unicef said 2.7 million children had stopped going to school

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  'There is no end in sight for the hunger crisis and hope is slowly fizzling out,' said Xavier Joubert, Ethiopia director for the British charity Save the Children

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  'There's no doubt that the need has grown to an enormous scale,' he said, in an urgent call for funding

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  Only 55.5 percent of the $5.9 billion sought by the UN to tackle the crisis has been provided

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  Early humanitarian action averted a famine in Somalia in 2017

Representatives from the UAE, US, UK, Qatar, Somalia and Turkey met on Tuesday and expressed concern at the conflict brewing in Somalia's northern breakaway region of Somaliland, Washington said.

At least 34 people were killed and 40 wounded in clashes between soldiers and anti-government fighters in the town of Laascaanood earlier this month.

“The partners expressed concern about the ongoing conflict … and called on all parties to adhere to the ceasefire, de-escalate, allow unhindered humanitarian access and engage in constructive and peaceful dialogue.” the US State Department said.

Somalia’s national security adviser Hussein Sheikh-Ali tweeted to say the Washington gathering was “a very productive meeting."

The region's government said on Twitter that armed men attacked army bases and state offices in Laascaanood early on February 6. It accused unnamed “traditional leaders” of recruiting the attackers and said it had thwarted the assault, just the latest clashes between the administration and groups that reject its authority.

Its government has faced particular opposition in Laascaanood and surrounding areas, where some clan leaders are seeking to rejoin federal Somalia and have accused the Somaliland authorities of failing to tackle insecurity.

Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 but has not gained widespread international recognition for its independence.

The clashes in Laascaanood, the administrative centre of Sool region, came a day after a committee of local leaders, religious scholars and civil society groups said they did not recognise the Somaliland administration.

The group said it represented the interests of people in the regions of Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn (SSC).

“We have decided that the Federal Republic of Somalia will administer the regions until federalisation of Somali territory is completed,” the committee said.

Ahmed Elmi Karaash, vice president of the neighbouring semi-autonomous region of Puntland, said his region supported the committee's resolutions. Puntland has also claimed the town for itself in the past.

The statement came as the US also stepped up military assistance to Mogadishu to fight Al Shabab.

Sixty-one tons of weapons and ammunition arrived Tuesday in the Somali capital, as the country sees success in battling what the US calls “the largest and most deadly Al Qaida network in the world.”

Somali forces have recaptured dozens of communities held by Al Shabab in a major offensive launched in August.

The participants of the international meeting expressed concern about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Somalia caused by the worst drought on record.

While food security experts recently said that six million people are at risk from the drought, they no longer expect the country to face famine.

The latest assessment released Tuesday by the UN and partner organisations notes “very high mortality rates” in the worst-affected populations which include people who have fled to Mogadishu and the south-western city of Baidoa.

The new food security assessment says nearly 500,000 children in Somalia are likely to be severely malnourished this year.

The extent of the disaster depends, however, on the extent of rain in the coming weeks and the ability of the international community to mobilise aid.

Representatives of the six countries agreed to meet again within three months.