Up to 200,000 children under five years of age could die of malnutrition and starvation in Somalia by the end of the year.
In order to combat this grim statistic the United Nations must receive emergency funds, Reuters reported.
"If funding is not received immediately, UNICEF will have to suspend essential life-saving health services within one month," spokesman Christophe Boulierac told Reuters.
"Somalia has 200,000 children under the age of five at risk of death (by) the end of the year 2014 from severe malnutrition if they do not receive life saving therapeutic assistance," he told a news briefing in Geneva, Reuters reported.
About 50,000 Somali children under the age of five currently suffer from "acute severe malnutrition."
After the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, UNICEF has been working to provide 70 percent of health services to the country, including "medicines, vaccinations, staff salaries and fuel to run hospital generators, especially in central and southern Somalia," Reuters reported.
The organization has only received $15 million of its U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), which asked for $150 million to provide the best healthcare possible to over three million women and children living in the horn of Africa.
If this happens, Western nations are concerned the country could once again fall into a state of chaos, and even act as a "launchpad" for Islamist militancy, Reuters reported.
Mogadishu, the nation's capital, has withstood several suicide bomb attacks within only the past few months. These attacks could be linked to al Qaeda-related al Shabaab militants.
"Proper nutrition is a powerful good: people who are well nourished are more likely to be healthy, productive and able to learn. Good nutrition benefits families, their communities and the world as a whole," UNICEF stated on their website. "Undernutrition is, by the same logic, devastating. It blunts the intellect, saps the productivity of everyone it touches and perpetuates poverty."
