Over 8,000 families in Tiyeglow district, Bakol region, are reportedly facing destitution.
Hassan Ibrahim Mohamed, one of the elders of Tiyeglow, told Radio Ergo that the affected families, mostly pastoralists and farmers, were in dire need of urgent humanitarian aid.
“The situation is alarming. They are severely malnourished and don’t have any food or health services,” he said.
The elder said that Al-Shabaab’s blockade of the town had severely compounded the drought situation in the area, forcing many residents to flee.
Tiyeglow district commissioner, Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, said the destitute families needed urgent help.
“The price of a kilogram of sugar has risen from 16,000 to 40,000 Somali shillings. If these people don’t receive food aid in time, they will starve to death.”
Somali government troops recently seized Tiyeglow from the Al-Shabaab militant group, which had controlled the town for five years.
Some of its residents fled and became IDPs in Baidoa to get humanitarian aid from the Somali government and humanitarian agencies in the area.
