MOGADISHU, March 5 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said it has a funding gap of 297 million U.S. dollars to meet humanitarian needs in Somalia for the next six months.

Without additional funding, the WFP's critical operations in Somalia will face pipeline breaks by mid-year, it warned in a statement released Tuesday evening.

"Early action is critical to avert a crisis in Somalia," WFP Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Jean-Martin Bauer was quoted as saying in the statement.

Extra funding is urgently required to scale up food assistance, nutrition support, water and sanitation services, as well as livelihood initiatives to mitigate the impacts of an expected drought in Somalia, Bauer said.

The statement came as new data from Somalia show that 1 million more people could be pushed into crisis-levels of food insecurity in the coming months as drought conditions, conflict and high food prices threaten to disrupt farming, restrict market access and increase humanitarian needs.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, which was released last week, shows that 3.4 million people are already experiencing crisis-levels of hunger or worse.

This number is projected to rise to 4.4 million, almost a quarter of Somalia's population, between April and June, when below-average rains are forecast, potentially creating drought conditions.

Bauer warned that without urgent funding, Somalia could once again face deepening hunger.

In late 2022, Somalia was brought to the brink of famine by the longest drought in recorded history as back-to-back failed rainy seasons devastated the country, the WFP said.

"A massive scale-up of humanitarian assistance from the WFP and partners averted famine in late 2022. Now hunger is rising again as another drought looms," it said.

IPC findings confirm that around 1.7 million children under the age of five are expected to face acute malnutrition through December in Somalia.

Of those, 466,000 face severe acute malnutrition and nearly two-thirds of the total malnutrition burden is concentrated in southern Somalia, which faces the worst drought conditions and insecurity.

"As humanitarian needs grow, limited funding is resulting in life-saving programs being reduced or cut altogether," the WFP said.

It noted that beginning in April, the WFP will provide food and cash assistance to 820,000 vulnerable people per month, down from 2.2 million a month in 2024. Enditem

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