Nairobi 20 August : The World Food Programme (WFP) has stated that more than $418 million are needed urgently in the next six weeks to ramp the aid in the Horn of Africa as levels of hunger increase following two consecutive droughts, and the threat of the threat of famine has been raised.WFP on Friday said that the extreme drought across the Horn of Africa is expected to continue in the months ahead, with a fifth poor rainy season forecast for later this year, Xinhua news agency reported.
“There is an end in sight for the drought crisis, therefore we must mobilize the funds needed to help save lives and stop people from sliding into extreme levels of hunger and starvation.” WFP Executive Director David Beasley stated in an announcement made in Nairobi Kenya’s capital city.of Kenya.
Since the beginning of this year an additional nine million people have been sucked into severe food insecurity across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia and left 22 million trying for food consume according to the UN agency said.
Beasley on Thursday completed his visit to drought-stricken Somalia in which more than 7 million peopleapproximately half the population of Somalia are in extreme food insecurity and 213,000 people are already experiencing similar famine conditions.
The Executive Director made a visit to Bardhere, a city in the southern part of Bardhere and met with with families including malnourished children and the mothers of those children who were forced out and had to travel far through war-ravaged regions in search of humanitarian aid.
“People here have waited long enough for rain to come, but they can’t remain in limbo for the vital food aid.The world must immediately act to safeguard communities that are most vulnerable from the danger of widespread food insecurity in the Horn of Africa,” said Beasley.
WFP announced that it has tripled the amount of people being assisted with emergency food assistance in the Bardhere region, which is home to thousands of people forced out of their homes due to drought and conflict.
In the 2016/17 drought in the Horn of Africa, WFP saidthat a catastrophe was avoided by taking action early and a humanitarian response was increased prior to widespread hunger, thereby saving lives and preventing the devastating effects of a hunger.
The Executive Director noted that WFP is aiming to reach 8.5 million people in the Horn of Africa, up from 6.3 million at the beginning of the year.
WFP at the beginning of 2022 said that 13 million of the individuals in the Horn of Africa were facing acute food insecurity due the drought.
In mid-July, with the fourth consecutive failure of rains, the number had risen to 20 million.At present the forecast is to increase to at minimum 22 million in September.
“This is only the beginning of the increase and the severity of hunger will increase in the event that the rainy season that follows (October through December) is not successful and the weakest populations are not provided with humanitarian aid.The need for assistance will continue to be high until 2023, and famine is an imminent threat, especially in Somalia,” WFP added.
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