NAIROBI, (AlertNet) - Somalia, already blighted by protracted conflict, is now facing its worst drought in nearly 20 years, the United Nations says.

The international community has focused on the fighting, but has neglected the equally severe effects of the prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa nation, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, told Reuters AlertNet in an interview.

"We need to be prepared to call this a major natural disaster in Somalia, which has now gone into the fifth season without rainfall," he said.

The United Nations has warned that a long drought in Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and Ethiopia will bring hunger and make more than 20 million people dependent on food aid.

Drought has dried rivers and pastures, hitting the region's pastoral communities hardest.

In a country as war-scarred as Somalia the drought has been too easy to overlook. Fighting began in 1993 when President Siad Barre was overthrown and the latest round flared in early 2007, with insurgents carrying out near-daily, Iraq-style attacks on Somali security forces to impose their own strict version of sharia law.

Bowden said 3.6 million Somalis - more than a third of the population - already depend on food aid, and warned the drought could exacerbate this.

"We will see a major loss of livelihoods for pastoral communities across Somalia and we are worried about the levels of international response because Somalia is now competing for attention with its neighbouring countries," said Bowden.

Pastoralism and trade of livestock remain the principal livelihood for most Somalis and accounts for roughly 80 percent of export earnings annually, according to a report by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit. But Bowden said Somalia's livestock exports had fallen a fifth this year.

THREAT TO LIVELIHOODS

Livestock, consisting primarily of camels, cattle, goats, and sheep, served several purposes. The animals provided milk and meat for domestic consumption, and livestock, hides, and skins for export.

"The crisis will push us towards an increased risk of mortality in the displaced populations. The levels of overcrowding and the facilities in the IDP (internally displaced people) camps are really very difficult worse than refugee camps outside the country," Bowden said.

The report said three-quarters of Somalis in need were concentrated in central and southern regions where fighting between the government and insurgents was heaviest and where aid workers had the least access.

Al Shabaab, the main rebel group, which Washington says is al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia, attacked the African Union peacekeeping mission's (AMISOM) main base in Mogadishu with twin suicide car bombs last week, killing 17 peacekeepers.

Bowden said the attack on the heavily guarded base by Mogadishu airport would not weaken the U.N.'s resolve to deliver aid to half the Somali population. But he said it could hinder operations on the ground.

"We have to take greater precautions around Mogadishu. Clearly the airport is more at risk and that will affect our ability to move staff and humanitarian goods," he said.

Bowden also called on Al-Shabaab to respect aid workers' role of providing much-needed aid to the population following attacks on two U.N. compounds in Baidoa and Jowhar earlier this year.

Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another one million from their homes.

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