A multi-donor-funded humanitarian agency, Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit-Somalia (FSNAU), has provided alarming details of Somalia's humanitarian situation in a recent report. It estimates that there are 1.5m internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia, out of a total population of around just 9m. Of these, 910,000 are identified as a "group in crisis" by the FSNAU. There are IDPs present in both rural and urban areas, and the displacement of such a large group of people also increases the risk of conflict as local groups compete for scarce resources. It is estimated that around 60% of the IDPs originate from Mogadishu.

The insecurity in the southern and central parts of the country is a major constraint on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, especially as the main Islamist insurgent group, al-Shabab (which controls the majority of these regions), has banned humanitarian agencies from operating there. At present the FSNAU estimates that 41% of agro-pastoralists are in acute food and livelihood crisis (AFLC) or humanitarian emergency (HE), as are 43% of pastoralists and 11% of those living in riverine areas. Broken down by region, the combined effects of drought and conflict are clear, as 57% of the population in the south and 30% in the central regions is considered to be in AFLC or HE, compared with just 7% in the north-east (mainly Puntland) and 6% in the North West (mainly Somaliland). Nationally, the agency estimated that in early April 2011 one in every seven children under five years of age was acutely malnourished, and one in every 25 severely malnourished-a 7% rise on six months earlier. The regional disparities are again pronounced, with around three-quarters of malnourished children being located in the south of the country.

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