The huge scale of the drought and famine engulfing the Horn of Africa means that the ongoing efforts to bring relief will have to be maintained for many months to come, even if they are likely to be hampered by a severe funding shortfall.
Around $1 billion has been received by agencies working in the field, but the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that a further $1.4 billion will be needed. Some 12 million people across the region, from South Sudan to Somalia, are thought to require food aid.
By far the worst hit is Somalia, where in September the UN Food Security Analysis Unit reckoned that as many as 4 million people were “in crisis”, with 750,000 at risk of death in the coming months. More than half of these have been out of reach of aid agencies in areas controlled by Al Shabaab militants. It is possible that nearly 100,000 people have died already.
“Over half the Somali population is drought displaced,” reported OCHA in late August. Malnutrition was thought to have affected 450,000 children inside the country. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its partners have established 800 feeding centres across Somalia, directly assisting about 10 percent of those affected, while food has also been airlifted into Mogadishu and other centres.
At the same time, however, there have been outbreaks of cholera reported in some of the urban areas. Unless southern Somalia receives rain in the coming months, aid workers fear the worst. “If the rains fail, the community have already lost almost everything and have no other means of supporting themselves,” said Bashir Mohamed, working inside Somalia for Kenya’s Wajir South Development Association.
“They will have to go across to Dadaab camp [in Kenya] or they will face death.” The World Food Programme has been pre-positioning emergency food stocks along the Kenya-Somalia border to be able to respond if humanitarian access improves.
Logistic agencies have been trying to establish new corridors into southern Somalia to deliver relief items where it has not been possible before, and corridors may also be set up from Somaliland, Puntland and Ethiopia, where more normal conditions prevail. According to OCHA, “A safe and regular shipping service has been secured for inter-agency cargo, and warehouse facilities are being augmented.” Other areas most badly affected by drought are southern localities of Ethiopia and adjoining parts of northern Kenya. Water shortages have aggravated the situation of poor pasture for maintaining herds of livestock.
