Data Visualization & Infographics display crisis in Somalia

Posted by: Yellowfin Team

Last week we claimed to expose a crisis. Our data visualization blog – Data Visualization and BI Presents: An International Sheep Crisis – uncovered “a crisis of international proportions” as we poked fun at dwindling livestock ratios in the sheep abundant capitals of the world (namely New Zealand).

However, a true crisis – one of catastrophic and mounting proportions – has grabbed our collective attention by the scruff of the neck.

Somalia famine and drought

Somalia, particularly its southern regions, is in a state of emergency, as worsening famine and drought ravage its people. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that children are most at risk.

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Ban Ki-moon calls for action

In a recent article addressing the spread of famine in Somalia, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Ban Ki-moon, called on the world to act: “I cannot accept this as her [Somalia’s] fate. Together, we must rescue her and her countrymen and all their children from a truly terrible nightmare.”

Will you answer the call? Click here to make a secure online donation to the UNICEF East Africa Emergency appeal.

Children at risk

Figures surrounding this crisis are fluctuating.

Currently, the most damning projections from UN officials estimate that ten percent of Somali children under five are dying every 11 weeks through starvation.

Crisis of scale: 3.7 out of 10 million in Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis

But no matter whose statistics you quote, the situation is dire. An extract from FSNAU’s homepage, dated 3 August, encapsulates the struggle: “As a result, famine is expected to spread across all regions of the South in the coming four to six weeks and is likely to persist until at least December 2011. Continued efforts to implement an immediate, large-scale, and comprehensive response are needed.


“Nationwide, 3.7 million people are in crisis, with 3.2 million people in need of immediate, lifesaving assistance.”

Location of Somalis in crisis: The South is starving

FSNAU data demonstrates that 3.2 out of 10 million Somalis are in need of “immediate lifesaving assistance”.


Of those 3.2 million, over 2.9 million come from the South.

Aid organizations are doing everything they can…

But…

In the lead-up to this crisis, UN food aid to Somalia was cut due to a shortfall in donations.

"Now [as of May] it has really got extremely serious,” said World Food Programme spokesman, Peter Smerdon. We have only about 30 percent of the food that we need to feed the one million people that we were expecting to feed this time of the year.”

So after reading this, what are you going to do? DONATE NOW.

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