The number of Somalis who do not have enough to eat has risen to five million, or more than four out of ten people, due to poor rains, the United Nations said on Tuesday, with children at the greatest risk of ill-health and death.
The figure has increased by 300,000 since February, it said, amid ongoing conflict between the Islamist militant group al Shabaab and Somalia's African Union-backed government.
Tens of thousands of refugees have returned to Somalia this year from the world's largest refugee camp, Dadaab, in Kenya as the government pushes ahead with plans to close it by November. Over 300,000 children under five are acutely malnourished and more than 50,000 are severely malnourished, the UN said, appealing for additional funding to support them.