UN: 'Millions on brink of starvation in horn of Africa'

Millions of people in the Horn of Africa are “on the brink of starvation” because of severe drought, with some human deaths already reported in Kenya, the United Nations warned today.

An estimated 11 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia need food aid, while water, new livestock and seeds are also needed across the region, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation said in a statement.

The agency issued what it called a special alert saying: “Millions of people are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa due to recent severe droughts coupled with the effects of past and ongoing conflicts.”

Shukri Ahmed, an economist at the FAO, said the agency was sounding the alarm so seriously now because the dry season had just begun and the rains forecast for March and April were not expected to be good.

He explained that normally, the herdsmen of the area would move from place to place for water and food for their livestock, but the recent drought had covered too large a swath of territory for them.

“The whole area is affected,” he said. “The situation is deteriorating.”

The food situation in Somalia and eastern Kenya is particularly serious, and some deaths in Kenya have been reported, FAO said. Ahmed noted local newspaper reports that cited Kenyan medical officials as reporting there had been at least 30 famine-related deaths.

In Somalia, the secondary rainy season from October to December failed in most of the eight agricultural regions in the south, “resulting in widespread crop failure” that could be the worst in a decade, the agency said.

Nearly 150,000 people in Djibouti – or almost a fifth of the population – are believed to be facing food shortages because of severe drought conditions, FAO said.

In Ethiopia, severe food shortages have been reported in the east and south, even though the prospects for the current harvest were favourable, the agency said. It said more than £20m (€29m) was needed to stave off starvation.

Ahmed said the United Nations had not yet issued a consolidated appeal for the Horn of Africa, but may do so now that the situation was worsening.

The World Food Programme has said that for Somalia alone, 64,000 tons of food aid was needed through June, but that only 16,700 tons had been made available by donors.