CAPE TOWN - An estimated 13 million people are waking up severely hungry every day in the Horn of Africa, as the region grapples with a major drought caused by the driest conditions since 1981, the World Food Programme (WFP) recently warned.
According to the food-assistance branch of the United Nations, three consecutive failed rainy seasons in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, have decimated crops and caused abnormally high livestock deaths, while shortages of water and pasture are forcing families from their homes and triggering conflict between communities, it said in a statement.
“Harvests are ruined, livestock are dying, and hunger is growing as recurrent droughts affect the Horn of Africa”, said Michael Dunford, Regional Director in the WFP Regional Bureau for Eastern Africa.
The WFP reported that the ongoing drought has impacted pastoral and farmer populations across southern and south-eastern Ethiopia, south-eastern and northern Kenya, and south-central Somalia, compounding increases in staple food prices and inflation as well as low demand for agricultural labour – all of which is exacerbating families’ inability to buy food.
And high malnutrition rates across the region could worsen if immediate action is not taken, it warned.
Furthermore, to avoid a major humanitarian crisis, like that of 2011 in which 250,000 people died of hunger in Somalia, WFP is launching a Regional Drought Response Plan for the Horn of Africa, it said.
The food assistance branch is calling for $327 million ( R4.97 billion) to meet the immediate needs of 4.5 million people over the next six months and help communities become more resilient to extreme climate shocks.
According to the Climate Security Expert Network, a Fifth Assessment Report presented strong evidence that warming over land across Africa has increased over the last 50–100 years. Surface temperatures have already increased by 0.5–2°C over the past hundred years.
IOL