News USAID pledges $476M in aid to Somalia amid ‘looming famine’

At least 7 million Somalis face acute food insecurity

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has pledged $470 million to Somalia to help it address its “worst drought on record and looming famine”.

The pledge came following a meeting on Sunday between USAID chief Samantha Powers and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Mogadishu. “The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing an additional $476 million in critical humanitarian and development assistance to the people of Somalia as a historically unprecedented drought pushes more than 7 million people to the edge of starvation,” the USAID said in a statement.

Mohamud’s office said the president expressed his appreciation for the support extended by the USAID and underlined “his government’s strong determination to address the ongoing humanitarian and drought crisis, intensify the fight against terrorist groups and prioritize political stability, democratization and reconciliation.”

For his part, Abdirahman Abdishakur, the Special Presidential Envoy for Drought Response for the Federal Republic of Somalia, welcomed the funding as timely “due to the ravaging drought” in the country.