The United Nations announced on Friday that it had downgraded Somalia's previously declared famine-hit regions to humanitarian emergency zones, crediting international assistance and a good harvest for the move.
In a joint statement, the U.N. Somalia Food Security Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and the U.S. famine warning network (FEWS NET) said: "The United Nations declares an end to famine conditions in Somalia."
"The combination of the massive scale-up in humanitarian assistance and an exceptional harvest have helped to improve the humanitarian situation," the statement said, adding that the zones previously declared as famine struck "have now improved to emergency level."
The world body, however, warned that the situation in Somalia remains critical, noting that almost a third of the country's population, estimated to be 2.34 million, will continue to need emergency support until the situation improves further.
Mark Bowden, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said the gains made in southern Somalia in the six months after famine was declared in the region was still "fragile" and warned that the situation "will be reversed without continued support."
"There are 1.7 million people in southern Somalia still in crisis. Millions of people still need food, clean water, shelter and other assistance to survive and the situation is expected to deteriorate in May," he added.
The U.N. had initially declared famine in Somalia's Southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions in July. But it later added four more regions, including the Middle Shabelle region as well as the Afgoye corridor refugee settlement outside capital Mogadishu and the capital itself, to its list of areas under a state of famine. Three of them were downgraded to emergency levels in November.
A famine is declared in a region only when certain measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger are met. For declaring famine, at least 20 per cent of households in an area under consideration must be facing extreme food shortages with only a limited ability to cope, acute malnutrition rates exceeding 30 percent and death rate exceeding two adults or four children in every thousand.
Last year's severe drought in Somalia, mostly in the south, had forced millions to leave the region to seek refugee in camps set up in Mogadishu as well as neighboring countries like Kenya and Ethiopia. It is estimated that more than ten million people in East Africa were affected by the drought.
Although some regions in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda were hit by drought, the situation in southern Somalia was compounded by Islamist insurgency and acute poverty. Somalia's main Islamist militant group, the al-Shabaab, had banned most international aid agencies from operating in areas under its control, including the worst affected southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions.
Al-Shabaab is Somalia's most prominent and influential Islamist militant unit and is branded a terrorist organization by the United States and most of the international community. The outfit is the military wing of the Islamist movement ousted by Ethiopia-backed Somali forces in 2006.
The militant outfit had withdrawn from capital Mogadishu and surrounding areas in August, following an influx of thousands of famine-stricken people seeking food and water.
Although the African Union peacekeepers and Somali security forces have since managed to take control of Mogadishu and adjoining areas, the al-Shabaab and other allied groups though still control large areas in southern Somalia where they enforce strict Islamic laws or Sharia.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.