Washington, DC — An estimated fifteen million people on the Horn of Africa are at risk of severe hunger this year warned USAID Administrator Brady Anderson in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. Anderson says that "unreliable rainfall has led to complete crop failure" and significant aid is necessary to prevent famine."
The agency says 545,000 people in Eritrea, 2,744,580 in Kenya, 1,200,000 in Somalia, 2,400,000 in Sudan, and 730,270 in Uganda are at risk of starvation and disease.
The crisis is most severe in Ethiopia, with over 8 million people currently at risk in the Tigray and Amhara regions as well as pastoral zones in the Oromiya and Somali regions. The Gode and Afder zones of the southeastern Somali Region have suffered poor rainfall for three years, and rates of malnutrition, severe water shortages and loss of livestock have been high. In some pastoral regions up to 90 percent of cattle and 65 percent of goats are reportedly dying from lack of food and water. The USAID/Famine early Warning Systems (FEWS) estimates that two thirds of aid beneficiaries in southern Tigray, northern Amhara, and southern Oromiya may require additional assistance next year.
On January 21, Ethiopia's Disaster Prevention Preparedness Committee (DPPC) began appealing for emergency assistance. The agency expects to need 898,936 metric tons of food aid - and more if the beleg or rains of the secondary season from March to May fail to come. In addition, the DPPC is already reporting outbreaks of bloody diarrhea and measles. The Drought Monitoring Center in Nairobi has already forecast below normal rains for the March-to-May season in most of Somalia, eastern Kenya, and southeastern Ethiopia.
Roughly half of the 1,265,489 metric tons of food required by the region are being planned for shipment by the U.S., but the transfer process faces substantial logistical challenges. "The road system into the famine area is very questionable," says Hugh Parmer, administrator of USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Response. Other uncertainties include port capacities and vehicles to transport aid. Palmer will leave Washington Friday for two weeks of travel in Horn of Africa nations. Before returning he will visit European nations where he will meet with officials of the World Food program, and colleagues in Brussels and Rome to discuss coordinated assistance.
