Faith Nyasuguta
Several UN agencies have cautioned that the risk of famine in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia is worsening with the prospects of another bad rainy season, the fifth in a row.
So far, there have been several warnings by the United Nations on this issue.
Somalia and parts of Kenya and Ethiopia have been hit by a “weather phenomenon unseen for at least 40 years”: a succession of “four rainy seasons with low rainfall”, said a statement issued by the UN agencies and other partners involved in humanitarian action.
“The March to May 2022 rainy season is likely to have been the driest on record”, and “there is now a real risk that the [next] October to December rainy season will be below expectations“, adds the statement, issued on behalf of the World Meteorological Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
The statement revealed that the drought has already led to the death of 3.6 million heads of livestock in Kenya and Ethiopia, in areas where livestock farming is the main source of income for local populations.
The situation is not different in Somalia, where a third of the livestock has died since mid-2021.
Further, crops have been destroyed and people have been displaced in search of food and water.
Over 16.7 million people in the three nations are already “acutely food insecure”, a figure that could rise to 20 million by September, and even more if another unsatisfactory rainy season occurs in the fourth quarter, the signatories note.
The situation has worsed due to the Ukraine war, which has sparked food and fuel prices to soar, they say.
“The need to rapidly scale up action to save lives and prevent starvation and related deaths is now,” the text adds, noting that funds are desperately needed.
In 2017, early humanitarian mobilisation prevented famine in Somalia, in contrast to 2011 when 260,000 people – half of them children under six – died of hunger or hunger-related disorders.
According to scientists, climate change is leading to more extreme weather events, particularly in Africa, the continent that contributes the least to global warming.
