ANKARA

A total of 2.6 million people in Somalia have been internally displaced amid insecurity, drought and floods, the UN migration agency said in a report on Tuesday.

"Somalia has for almost three decades been in the throes of conflict; now add the most recent drought and the result is displacement and food shortages,” said the report released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The forced displacement in Somalia in the first half of the year, was foremost due to “insecurity, drought and floods,” it said.

“Currently a total of 2.6 million people remain displaced within the country,” the report added.

It further said some 5.4 million people out of the 15 million living in the country were estimated as food insecure, while some 2.2 million of the population are living in “severe acute food insecurity conditions.

The report said more than half of the population in Somalia live under poverty, “with the highest poverty rates found in displacement settlements.”

Largely due to prolonged conflict, Somalia also has a considerable refugee population abroad, nearly 900,000, according to UNHCR’s Global Trends Report issued in June 2019.

Somalia descended into civil war in 1991 following the overthrow of late President Mohamed Siad Barre and has since remained in the grip of periodic violence.