Mogadishu (Sunatimes) Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militia on Thursday downplayed drought situation in Somalia accusing the United Nations of exaggerating the severity of the drought gripping the south of the country and of politicizing the humanitarian crisis.

Al-Shabaab’s spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage told a media briefing in Mogadishu that the United Nations’ declaration is totally, 100 percent wrong and baseless propaganda.

He acknowledged the existence of drought in the country but the conditions are not as bad as the UN puts, accusing the United Nations of having other objectives.

The UN estimated that about 2.8 million people in two regions in southern Somalia; southern Bakol and Lower Shabelle are facing famine due to consecutive droughts that have affected the country in the last few years, while the ongoing conflict has made it difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country.

The hardest hit regions in the country are largely controlled by the Al-Shabaab militia whose insurgency in these regions is widely blamed for exacerbating the impact of the drought.

The Al-Shabaab militia earlier requested for international assistance in southern Somalia, to deal with the current crisis in the region.

By Abdisalan Abdulle