According to the World Food Program, the situation needs immediate help to avoid a crisis similar to that in Somalia in 2011. At that time, 250,000 people died of starvation due to a prolonged period of drought.
Africa the horn region is plagued by a severe famine and the situation calls for immediate relief, the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) warned on Tuesday. As many as 13 million people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia are at risk of famine after experiencing the worst drought in decades.
According to WFP, there has been insufficient rainfall for three consecutive rainy seasons. The area is now the driest since 1981, news agencies Reuters and AFP reported.
Weather forecasts also do not promise relief from drought. On the contrary, lower-than-average rainfall is forecast for the area.
Drought has destroyed crops and caused an unusually high number of livestock deaths. Thousands of poor families living in rural areas who depend on livestock and farming have been forced to flee their homes and seek refugee camps.
According to WFP, the situation calls for immediate humanitarian action to avoid a crisis similar to that in Somalia in 2011. At that time, 250,000 people died of hunger due to a record-breaking drought, and about half of those dead were children.
WFP demanded immediate assistance to the region of $ 327 million, or about $ 286 million, over the next six months.
In Ethiopia, the famine has worsened as well Tigray conflict. People have been told to eat the leaves and roots of trees to stay alive.
The organization, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, recalled that support should also be given to local communities in the event of future crises accelerated by climate change.
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