Drought Means Starvation for Millions of East Africans

A famine is increasingly likely in the region as rains fail for the fourth consecutive year. Violent conflicts in the Horn of Africa are also undermining efforts to help the populations in need, reports Felix Maringa for Deutsche Welle.

Many regions in northern Kenya have been experiencing the worst drought in years. Some areas, like central Kenya, which for a long time enjoyed surplus food production and high yields, have seen crops drying up, harvests dwindling and hunger growing.

Pastoralists, who are dependent on livestock, are fighting for survival. Animals that once provided a source of income can now hardly be kept alive. When they collapse, scavengers fight over the remains.

In neighbouring Somalia, the drought has affected 7 million people who are in dire need of assistance, according to the Minister for Agriculture Ahmed Madobe Nunow.

In the middle of a civil war between the central government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Ethiopia is another country struggling to feed its population. Over one million people in the Tigray region alone have been unable to receive assistance.