At elast 110 people have died from drought-related illness in Somalia in the past 48 hours, Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said on Saturday.
Khaire made the announcement while speaking to the drought committee in Mogadishu, saying that most of those who had died were women and children.
The announcement came just four days after President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo declared the drought a national disaster.
The death toll covers those who died in the rural areas of Somalia’s southwestern Bay region where the drought is more severe than other parts of the country. It was not immediately clear how many others have died in the rest of the country.
Somalia has been hit hard by a severe drought that has affected more than 6.2 million people who are currently facing food insecurity and a lack of clean water because of little rainfall in recent years and the drying up of rivers in the country.
The U.N. earlier in the week warned that the drought could lead to famine.
