A severe famine threatens the East African region

Drought is the main problem

East Africa is suffering from a drought that has not been experienced in 40 years, the situation is the most serious in the south and southeast of Ethiopia, some regions of Kenya and Somalia – warned Vorkne Gebrejehu, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an organization that includes eight East African states.

At the IGAD conference held in Nairobi, Gebrejehu said that they know of severely malnourished children from the six member states of the organization consisting of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda, primarily among those forced to leave their homes.

According to IGAD data, about 13 million internally displaced persons live in East Africa and they know of another five million refugees and asylum seekers, and famine threatens these groups the most.

In addition, in seven IGAD states, more than 51 million people – almost 20 percent of the organization’s total population – have an insecure food supply, and 388,000 of them are at risk of starvation.

The situation could get even worse very soon, because the meteorological forecasts for the rest of the year do not indicate a significant amount of precipitation – the organization pointed out.

He also called on the governments of the region to deal with the underlying causes of food insecurity and develop cost-effective solutions adapted to local specificities.

In addition to Sweden, France and the European Union, the United States Agency for International Development, the African Development Bank and several specialized organizations of the UN also participated in the Nairobi conference.

UN/MTI