Water levels and river flow along the Juba and Shabelle river have reduced, causing the number of people affected by the severe drought to increase from 3.2 million people in December to about 4.3 million people in February. In pastoral areas, water and pasture shortages have forced pastoralists to migrate to distant grazing areas due to Livestock losses and rampant disease breakouts. Humanitarian partners in Somalia are scaling up assistance to meet rapidly growing drought-related needs in order to alleviate present threats and rectify protection gaps.
