Nearly 17 million people in the Horn of Africa urgently need food, up from 9 million early in the year, as crippling drought, soaring food prices and conflict take an increasing toll on the region, the UN humanitarian chief said on Friday.
John Holmes said the humanitarian emergency had yet to escalate to a famine, but he warned that if donors do not provide US$716 million very quickly the region could return to the famine situations seen in the 1980s and 1990s.
“The overall food security situation in the Horn of Africa — that is in Ethiopia, in Somalia, in Djibouti, in Eritrea, in parts of northern Kenya, in Uganda — is getting even more serious than it was before because of the combined effects of drought and rising food prices, and in some places conflict,” he told a news conference.
“We reckon there are nearly 17 million people in this region who are now in urgent need of food and other emergency humanitarian assistance,” including 3 million children, Holmes said. “This number could even rise as the drought deepens and the hunger season continues.”
Early this year, the UN estimated that 9 million people in the Horn of Africa were in urgent need of food.
Holmes said the situation had worsened because the region is experiencing perhaps “the worst effects” of soaring food prices, a third year of drought and conflicts in Somalia, parts of Ethiopia and elsewhere.
“It is not too late to avert this catastrophe, but we do need some urgent funding now,” he said. “Otherwise the situation is going to become even more catastrophic than it is today.”
The UN estimates it needs US$1.4 billion to help the 17 million people in need until the end of the year — but it only has US$684 million. That means it desperately needs US$716 million to cover needs from next month to December, he said.
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