A climate center, IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center has said trends in a historic Horn of Africa drought are now worse than they were during the 2011 drought when at least a quarter-million people died and below-normal rainfall is expected in the rainy season over the next three months.
The center this could be the sixth failed consecutive rainfall season in the region that includes Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
The drought which has lasted almost three years is the longest on record in Somalia, and has caused tens of thousands deaths in its wake and figures from the United Nations shows more than 1 million people have been displaced in the country.
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Last month, the U.N. resident coordinator in Somalia warned that excess deaths in Somalia will “almost certainly” surpass those of the famine declared in the country in 2011.
Close to 23 million people are thought to be highly food insecure in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to a food security working group chaired by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development as already, 11 million livestock that are essential to many families’ health and wealth have died, Wednesday’s statement said. Many people affected across the region are pastoralists or farmers who have watched crops wither and water sources run dry.
The war in Ukraine has affected the humanitarian response as traditional donors in Europe divert funding to the crisis closer to home. The head of IGAD, Workneh Gebeyehu, therefore called on governments and partners to act “before it’s too late.”
Story was adapted from AP.
