• Already, 3.5 million people in Kenya are short of food and up to 6.5 million people in Southern Ethiopia need aid.
• Save the Children says the ongoing war in Ukraine is further threatening to push families deeper into misery as the crisis has driven up food prices.
Image: AFP
Kenya and her neighbours in the Horn of Africa could be staring at a repeat of the 2011 famine that killed 260,000 people, Save the Children has warned.
The organization says a poor start to the rainy season in the region has aroused fears that the worst drought in decades could soon have catastrophic results.
The body says more than 16 million people, including children, are already in dire need of food aid in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.
"Without urgent intervention, every hour pushes families and children closer and closer to the brink of starvation," Save the Children Country Director, Yvonne Arunga said.
Already, 3.5 million people in Kenya are short of food and up to 6.5 million people in Southern Ethiopia need aid.
The ongoing war in Ukraine is further threatening to push families deeper into misery as the crisis has driven up food prices.
East Africa depends on 90 per cent of wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine; Russia (67%), Ukraine (22%).
The cost of food was already on an upward trend, driven by climate shocks, locust invasion, conflict and tough economic times caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Currently, there is a Sh4.4 trillion UN humanitarian appeal for the Horn of Africa but Arunga says funding is extremely low.
She has appealed to the international community for more funding before the situation worsens.
Kenya and Ethiopia have only received light showers after seven weeks of the rainy season.
In Kenya’s arid and semi-arid regions, people are facing an emergency food situation and children are having to contend with one meal a day.
The drought situation has seen pastoralist families lose over 1.46 million livestock.
Arunga said this has led to children missing out on milk, their main source of nutrition.
Another 890,000 children aged under five are now suffering from malnutrition.
In Somalia, more than 720,000 people have abandoned their homes in search of food and water in the past eight months.
"The situation is getting worse by the day and the war in Ukraine has dealt a serious blow to what was already a perilous situation," Save the Children Country Director for Somalia, Mohamud Hassan said.
In its April early warning bulletin, the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) warned that the drought situation in 16 of the 23 arid and semi-arid counties continues to worsen.
It said seven of the counties are in the alarm drought phase, nine are at the alert phase while six are at the normal drought phase.
The authority revealed that two sub-counties - Wajir East and Mandera East- are in extreme vegetation deficit and need humanitarian aid.
Four counties - Mandera, Laikipia, Samburu and Wajir - are in severe vegetation deficit.
"This is attributed to the poor performance of the 2021 short rains coupled with previous two failed consecutive seasons and late onset of the 2022 long rains season," the authority said.
Rainfall Forecast
According to the Kenya Meteorological Department, the outlook for April indicates that several parts of the country are likely to experience near average rainfall.
These are highlands west of the Rift Valley, Central and Southern Rift Valley, Lake Victoria Basin, Highlands East of the Rift Valley, Nairobi and parts of the Northeast and Southeastern lowlands.
The forecast shows that parts of the Northeast, Southeastern lowlands, and the Coastal region are likely to receive below-average rainfall.
It further indicates that several parts of the country are likely to experience near to below-average rainfall, especially during the first half of the month.