Somali leader urges help to avert famine

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Somalia's president said Thursday that almost half his country's people are facing acute food shortages and about 15 percent are facing famine, and he urged the world to help.

Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed told the U.N. Security Council by video link from Mogadishu that Somalis are proud and resilient and would be the last to ask for help, but drought has spawned a humanitarian crisis that could threaten the country's recent political and security gains.

The United Nations said Wednesday that the $864 million U.N. humanitarian appeal for Somalia is only 31 percent funded.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who visited Somalia last week and presided over the council meeting, said the country is facing its third famine in 25 years and over 6 million people — half the population — need help.

"We cannot forget that the last time Somalia was blighted by starvation, in 2011, no fewer than 260,000 people died," he said. "The crisis also risks undermining the hard-won political and security progress that has been made."

Mohamed's inauguration as president in February was a key step toward establishing Somalia's first fully functioning central government in a quarterSomalia began to fall apart in 1991, when warlords ousted dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. Years of conflict and attacks by the al-Shabab Islamic extremist group, along with famine, shattered the Horn of Africa country of some 12 million people.

Michael Keating, the U.N. envoy for Somalia, told the council the country "is experiencing a moment of both tragedy and hope" — tragedy because of the threat of famine and hope because the recent electoral process "has created momentum for fresh political engagement among Somalis." This week's announcement of a Cabinet with six women was the latest step forward, he said.

Keating said nearly 3 million Somalis, mainly women and children, "require immediate life-saving support," but compared to 2011, "the scope for responding to the crisis is greater."

He pointed to greater cellphone coverage, expanded money transfer options, and improved data and controls on financial and other resources.