In August, the World Food Program indicated that at least 22 million people would be threatened by hunger by September because of agricultural losses.
Le Monde
The Horn of Africa, where the risk of a famine grows due to a historic drought, is preparing for a fifth season of the failed consecutive rains, the world meteorological organization said on Friday August 26 ( OMM), a United Nations agency. “Humanitarian agencies have told you a lot about the terrible drought that rages in the horn of Africa. Unfortunately, you will hear about it even more in the weeks and months to come, because the drought will continue,” said A spokesperson for OMM, Clare Nullis, during a regular press briefing in Geneva.
She explained that the forum on climatic perspectives for the region of the Horn of Africa, which notably brings together climatologists and humanitarian organizations, met in recent days, and has published its forecasts for the season rains from October to December.
Forecasts show strong risks of dry conditions than average in most regions of the Horn of Africa, said M me nullis, making this rainy season the fifth consecutive failed. “In particular, the regions affected by drought in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia should receive insufficient precipitation until the end of the year,” she added.
The spokesperson highlighted the importance of the rainy season from October to December in the equatorial parts of the Horn of Africa where it contributes to 70 % of total annual precipitation, in particular in the ‘is Kenya.
“Save millions of lives”
At the beginning of 2022, the World Food Program (PAM) called for the mobilization of funds to help 13 million people then threatened by hunger in the horn of Africa. And on August 19, the organization indicated that at least 22 million people would be threatened by hunger by September.
For several months, humanitarian organizations have multiplied alerts on the degradation of the situation in the horn of Africa, which raises fears of a drama similar to that of 2011, the last famine which had killed 260,000 people in Somalia.
In a statement published on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed that “by acting now, we can save millions of lives”. According to WHO, 700,000 people are already threatened by famine in certain regions of Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.
“We ask everyone to support humanitarian action, be it traditional donors such as North America, Europeans, Japan and others that have provided us with large amounts of money in recent years , or many other countries that could still get involved, “noted the spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office (OCHA), Jens Laerke, during the briefing.