About 13 million people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia are at risk of extreme hunger as the Horn of Africa is experiencing the worst drought in decades, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) announced today.
According to the agency, three consecutive rainy seasons have now been missed and the region is now in the driest conditions since 1981. The drought has destroyed crops and resulted in an “unusually” high number of cattle deaths, forcing rural families who live on pastoralism and agriculture to abandon their homes.
Water and pasture are scarce and below-average rainfall forecasts for the next few months threaten to only bring more misery, said Michael Dunford, WFP’s regional director in East Africa. “Crops are ruined, livestock are dying and hunger is mounting as recurring droughts hit the Horn of Africa,” he said in a statement. “The situation requires immediate humanitarian action” to avoid a repetition of a crisis like the 2011 Somali one, when 250,000 people starved to death from a prolonged drought, Dunford added.
Food aid is being distributed in an arid area running through Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, where malnutrition rates are high and some 13 million people are at risk of extreme hunger in the first quarter of this year.
About 5.7 million people were in need of food assistance in southern and southeastern Ethiopia, including half a million malnourished children and mothers. In Somalia, moreover, the number of people classified as severely hungry is expected to increase from 3.5 million to 4.6 million by May, unless urgent action is taken, warns the WFP. Another 2.8 million people are in need of assistance in south-east and northern Kenya, where a drought emergency was declared in September.
According to the WFP, $ 327 million is needed to respond to immediate needs over the next six months and support rural communities to be able to more easily cope with recurring climate shocks.
Source: Ansa
I have been working in the news industry for over 10 years now and I have worked for some of the biggest news websites in the world. My focus has always been on entertainment news, but I also cover a range of other topics. I am currently an author at Global happenings and I love writing about all things pop-culture related.
