MOGADISHU, Somalia — The secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres, arrived in Somalia on Tuesday and appealed for $825 million in aid to address drought and cholera in the East Africa nation on the brink of famine.
Mr. Guterres said the money was needed to help 5.5 million people, about half of Somalia’s population, survive the next six months.
A former prime minister of Portugal who was picked in October to lead the United Nations, Mr. Guterres announced his visit on Twitter.
Just arrived in Somalia on emergency visit to focus on famine & cholera. People are dying. The world must act now to stop this.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 7, 2017
Last week, he declared that famine was underway in part of South Sudan, and warned that people in areas of Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen were also at risk of dying from hunger.
At the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, Mr. Guterres met with President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a former prime minister who was elected last month.
Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said that droughts and cholera had killed more than 200 people in southern and central Somalia.
The country has already had two consecutive years of drought, and meteorologists expect crops to fail again this year. Famine was last declared in Somalia in July 2011, after an estimated 260,000 people died, most during a two-month period.
In a joint news conference, Mr. Mohamed and Mr. Guterres pleaded for assistance.
“The reason Secretary General Guterres came here today is to show support and solidarity with the Somali people at this time of humanitarian crisis,” Mr. Mohamed said.
Mr. Guterres said: “We need massive support from the international community to avoid a repetition of the tragic events of 2011.”
He added that this was “a moment of tragedy” but also “a moment of hope,” because prompt action would make it possible to avoid the worst and allow the country “to be able to turn the page and for Somalia to, finally, find the way to stability, peace and prosperity that Somalis have always been able to manage by themselves.”
Mr. Guterres recited a litany of statistics: Some 330,000 acutely malnourished children, a number that could rise to a million; 3.3 million people in need of medical care to deal with diseases in a country that lacks health infrastructure; and 7,731 cases of cholera — 183 fatal — in the past two months.
“Just last week, 1,352 cases of cholera and 38 people dying — it’s a process in acceleration,” he warned.
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The United Nations leader also visited the town of Baidoa, where a deadly cholera strain has struck.
Ahmed Abdi Hassan, the Somali consul general in Aden, Yemen, who was part of a delegation that welcomed Mr. Guterres, called the visit historic, likening it to one last year by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who opened an embassy in Mogadishu and called for deeper ties between the nations.
The Somali government has created an emergency committee of federal and regional levels to handle fund-raising and to register people affected by drought.
Ahmed Abdallah, a Somali nomad, said in an interview that he had lost 60 camels and 180 goats in the past three months in Somaliland, a semiautonomous region in the northwest of the country.
Mr. Abdallah and his family are among an estimated 46,000 Somali families who lost most of their animals since the start of the year.
The government is functioning but does not control the entire country, and there are vast pockets where militants from the Shabab group are active. Somalia is one of six predominantly Muslim countries whose citizens are blocked from entering the United States under President Trump’s revised travel ban.
Before President Barack Obama’s term ended, the United States government intensified a largely clandestine war in Somalia, using Special Operations troops, airstrikes, private contractors and African allies in an escalating campaign against Shabab militants.
Mr. Mohamed is widely known by the nickname, Farmajo, derived from formaggio, the Italian word for cheese: His father was said to have acquired a taste for cheese when Somalia was an Italian colony.
MOGADISHU, Somalia — The secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres, arrived in Somalia on Tuesday and appealed for $825 million in aid to address drought and cholera in the East Africa nation on the brink of famine.
Mr. Guterres said the money was needed to help 5.5 million people, about half of Somalia’s population, survive the next six months.
A former prime minister of Portugal who was picked in October to lead the United Nations, Mr. Guterres announced his visit on Twitter.
Just arrived in Somalia on emergency visit to focus on famine & cholera. People are dying. The world must act now to stop this.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 7, 2017
Last week, he declared that famine was underway in part of South Sudan, and warned that people in areas of Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen were also at risk of dying from hunger.
At the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, Mr. Guterres met with President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a former prime minister who was elected last month.
Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said that droughts and cholera had killed more than 200 people in southern and central Somalia.
The country has already had two consecutive years of drought, and meteorologists expect crops to fail again this year. Famine was last declared in Somalia in July 2011, after an estimated 260,000 people died, most during a two-month period.
In a joint news conference, Mr. Mohamed and Mr. Guterres pleaded for assistance.
“The reason Secretary General Guterres came here today is to show support and solidarity with the Somali people at this time of humanitarian crisis,” Mr. Mohamed said.
Mr. Guterres said: “We need massive support from the international community to avoid a repetition of the tragic events of 2011.”
He added that this was “a moment of tragedy” but also “a moment of hope,” because prompt action would make it possible to avoid the worst and allow the country “to be able to turn the page and for Somalia to, finally, find the way to stability, peace and prosperity that Somalis have always been able to manage by themselves.”
Mr. Guterres recited a litany of statistics: Some 330,000 acutely malnourished children, a number that could rise to a million; 3.3 million people in need of medical care to deal with diseases in a country that lacks health infrastructure; and 7,731 cases of cholera — 183 fatal — in the past two months.
“Just last week, 1,352 cases of cholera and 38 people dying — it’s a process in acceleration,” he warned.
Thank you for subscribing.
An error has occurred. Please try again later.
You are already subscribed to this email.
View all New York Times newsletters.
The United Nations leader also visited the town of Baidoa, where a deadly cholera strain has struck.
Ahmed Abdi Hassan, the Somali consul general in Aden, Yemen, who was part of a delegation that welcomed Mr. Guterres, called the visit historic, likening it to one last year by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who opened an embassy in Mogadishu and called for deeper ties between the nations.
The Somali government has created an emergency committee of federal and regional levels to handle fund-raising and to register people affected by drought.
Ahmed Abdallah, a Somali nomad, said in an interview that he had lost 60 camels and 180 goats in the past three months in Somaliland, a semiautonomous region in the northwest of the country.
Mr. Abdallah and his family are among an estimated 46,000 Somali families who lost most of their animals since the start of the year.
The government is functioning but does not control the entire country, and there are vast pockets where militants from the Shabab group are active. Somalia is one of six predominantly Muslim countries whose citizens are blocked from entering the United States under President Trump’s revised travel ban.
Before President Barack Obama’s term ended, the United States government intensified a largely clandestine war in Somalia, using Special Operations troops, airstrikes, private contractors and African allies in an escalating campaign against Shabab militants.
Mr. Mohamed is widely known by the nickname, Farmajo, derived from formaggio, the Italian word for cheese: His father was said to have acquired a taste for cheese when Somalia was an Italian colony.
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