• According to the report, 135 million people globally faced acute food insecurity in 2019..
• Of this number, 20 per cent, or 27.6 million people, resided in the IGAD region in East Africa.
Image: /FILE
Nearly 3.1 million Kenyans are food insecure, according to a food crisis report.
The 2020 Global Report on Food Crises released on Thursday shows that the number of people in need of emergency food assistance in Kenya increased throughout 2019 from an estimated 1.1 million in February to 1.6 million in May and 2.6 million by July.
According to the report, 135 million people globally faced acute food insecurity in 2019.
“Of this number, 20 per cent, or 27.6 million people, resided in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region in East Africa,” the report indicated.
Workneh Gebeyehu, IGAD executive secretary, said the worst-hit countries in the region were Ethiopia with eight million people, South Sudan with seven million and Sudan with 5.9 million people.
He said acute food insecurity was highest in South Sudan, where 61 per cent of the analysed population was in the crisis phase followed by Ethiopia (27 per cent), Kenya at (22 per cent), Somalia (17 per cent) and Sudan (14 per cent).
“Acute food insecurity levels across the IGAD region have steadily increased since 2016. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of people in need of urgent food assistance increased by two per cent, or about 650,000 people, largely driven by rising numbers of acutely food-insecure people in South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. The numbers were stable in Ethiopia and decreased in Sudan and Somalia,” he said.
In August 2019, the World Food Programme said rapid population growth, climate change, stagnating agricultural production, gender inequalities and under-performing food systems pose significant challenges to food and nutrition security.
Gebeyehu said 2019 was particularly challenging with severe drought across the region in the first half of the year, followed by widespread floods that affected more than three million people at the end of the year.
He attributed the acute food insecurity across the region to weather extremes, conflict and economic shocks.
“Most countries faced all three challenges, with negative impacts reinforcing each other, adding to the complexity of the acute food insecurity situation," he said.
In 2019, Gebeyehu said, weather extremes constituted the primary driver of acute food insecurity and malnutrition in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where collectively 13.2 million people were in need of urgent food assistance.
These extremes included drought during the first half of the year and flooding during the second half.
He said in late 2019, the IGAD region also experienced the worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years.
“A second wave of locusts, 20 times bigger than the first, threatens the region in 2020 further endangering the food security situation. At the same time, the governments and people of the region are grappling with the severe challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and widespread flooding of arable lands,” he said.
In addition, high levels of conflict and insecurity persist in the region, compelling millions of people to abandon their homes and livelihoods which compromises their ability to meet their basic needs.
“Political tensions and underlying vulnerabilities continue to affect our economies, driving high levels of unemployment, particularly among the youth, and forcing our people to migrate out of the region in search of better opportunities,” Gebeyehu said.