Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that nearly 100,000 people in the fragile country were facing catastrophic levels of hunger due to the worst drought to hit the region in four decades.
Monday's study used a statistical model to estimate that up to 135 Somalis could lose their lives to drought-related causes every day during the first six months of this year, with the total deaths projected to be between 18,100 and 34,200.
It also said that the extreme weather conditions may have led to 43,000 "excess deaths" last year compared to a 2017 drought, with children under the age of five accounting for half the victims.
The study was commissioned by UNICEF and WHO and carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Imperial College London.
"We are racing against time to prevent deaths and save lives", said Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO representative to Somalia.
"The cost of our inaction will mean that children, women and other vulnerable people will pay with their lives while we hopelessly, helplessly witness the tragedy unfold."
Five straight failed rainy seasons in parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have killed millions of livestock, destroyed crops, and forced more than one million people from their homes in search of food and water.
Weather forecasters say a sixth rainy season is also expected to fail, confirming the fears of aid agencies who have warned of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe on the horizon.
While famine thresholds have not been reached, the United Nations says more than half of Somalia's population will need humanitarian assistance this year.
Somalia was hit by a famine in 2011 which killed 260,000 people, more than half of them children under six, partly because the international community did not act fast enough, according to the UN.
In 2017, more than six million people in the country, more than half of them children, needed aid because of a prolonged drought across East Africa.
But early humanitarian action averted famine that year.
The conflict-wracked nation is considered one of the most vulnerable to climate change but is particularly ill-equipped to cope with the crisis as it battles a deadly Islamist insurgency.
Malawi says cholera crisis risks worsening after Cyclone Freddy
Blantyre, Malawi (AFP) March 20, 2023 -
Malawi faces increased risk of a surge in cholera cases following the devastation caused by Cyclone Freddy that has destroyed water systems and toilets, the health ministry warned Monday.
The country was already battling its deadliest cholera outbreak on record when the storm landed last week, causing mudslides and flooding, killing 476 and displacing nearly half a million.
The cholera outbreak, which began last year, infected more than 30,600 people and claimed more than 1,700 deaths.
"With the floods, people's toilets have been washed away and most people have no access to safe drinking water," health services director Storn Kabuluzi told AFP, saying the country faced an "immediate danger" of surging cholera cases.
After a record-breaking rampage, the storm caused 579 deaths in three southern African countries including Mozambique and Madagascar.
Malawi was hit the hardest as Freddy triggered floods and mudslides that swept away homes, roads and bridges -- also causing massive damage to the country's water infrastructure.
"In the face of crisis and chaos, it is children who are the most vulnerable," warned UNICEF regional director for eastern and southern Africa, Mohamed Malick Fall.
In neighbouring Mozambique, the interruption in water, hygiene services and sanitation "is driving a rapid acceleration in cholera case numbers", said UNICEF.
Flooding and damage caused by Freddy in the two neighbouring countries have hampered access to health and other basic services, which will almost certainly exacerbate the cholera outbreaks they are experiencing, said UNICEF.
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