Across the Horn of Africa – in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia – 22 million people currently face a severe hunger crisis after four consecutive failed rainy seasons. Alarmingly, this figure is expected to increase, with a fifth poor rainy season forecast by the end of the year, according to the United Nations.
Disruptions to grain supplies and rising prices caused by the war in Ukraine have pushed more and more people to the brink – in regions already reeling from skyrocketing costs resulting from the intersection of climate change, conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We don’t have the luxury of just focusing on what needs to be done today,” says Michael Dunford, the World Food Programme’s Regional Director for East Africa.
“We also need to start preparing for the next shock – whether that’s the next drought, the next flood or the next crisis.”
“We also need to start preparing for the next shock – whether that’s the next drought, the next flood or the next crisis” says Michael Dunford, the World Food Programme’s Regional Director for East Africa.
In Ethiopia, food prices are at an all-time high and have been since the height of the pandemic. Pastoralists in the southern and eastern lowlands of the country have powerlessly watched another predator – drought – reduce their livestock to skin and bones.
Bergi witnessed the scorching weather decimate her crops and animals. She lives in the South Omo zone, in Ethiopia’s southeast, near the border with Kenya.
She made it to the Eria Ambule health post with her 11-month baby when their health started to deteriorate.
Behailua, is one of the nurses who works there, treating children aged under-5 and their mother’s suffering malnutrition. “I observe big changes a few days after they’ve been introduced to the nutritional food supplements,” she says. “Mothers and children have started to gain weight and are slowly getting back on their feet.”
Some 3.9 million children are severely malnourished in Ethiopia alone, or roughly half all those suffering from malnutrition across the Horn of Africa.
“This is the worst drought, the driest it’s ever been in 40 years. So, we are entering a whole new phase in climate change,” says WFP’s Michael Dunford
The climate crisis that has uprooted more than 1 million people. Today, they are on the move in search of food, pasture, water and alternative livelihoods.
Bergi witnessed the scorching weather decimate her crops and animals. She lives in the South Omo zone, in Ethiopia’s southeast, near the border with Kenya.
She made it to the Eria Ambule health post with her 11-month baby when their health started to deteriorate.
Behailua, is one of the nurses who works there, treating children aged under-5 and their mother’s suffering malnutrition. “I observe big changes a few days after they’ve been introduced to the nutritional food supplements,” she says. “Mothers and children have started to gain weight and are slowly getting back on their feet.”
Some 3.9 million children are severely malnourished in Ethiopia alone, or roughly half all those suffering from malnutrition across the Horn of Africa.
“This is the worst drought, the driest it’s ever been in 40 years. So, we are entering a whole new phase in climate change,” says WFP’s Michael Dunford
The climate crisis that has uprooted more than 1 million people. Today, they are on the move in search of food, pasture, water and alternative livelihoods.
