The Horn of Africa in the grip of a record drought, a double crisis for Ethiopia

A woman leads her cattle towards a river near Biyolow Kebele, in the drought-hit Somali region of Ethiopia, February 2, 2022. AP - Michael Tewelde

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

Drought in the Horn of Africa threatens 13 million people, a record for nearly 40 years, according to the United Nations, which deplores three years of no rainy seasons.

In Ethiopia, the east and south of the country are particularly affected, with nearly 7 million people in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

Either a new crisis, while the country is already struggling to manage the catastrophic situation in the north of the country due to the war in Tigray.

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in Addis Ababa,

Noé Hochet-Bodin

The United Nations report is clear:

Ethiopia is not only facing two major humanitarian crises

, but these two situations are only getting worse.

Nearly 9 million Ethiopians in need of humanitarian aid following the Tigray war.

This figure will soon reach 6.8 million in the east and south of the country.

It is in the Somali region that the situation is most worrying.

Already 200,000 head of cattle have died from the drought, unheard of in four decades.

Nomadic herding communities are destitute, around 3 million people

depend on food aid

today.

But this aid comes in a trickle, deplores the World Food Program (WFP).

Its budget remains limited, while the needs increase drastically.

The WFP is requesting a contribution of 175 million dollars to respond to this drought.

This without forgetting another request, for 260 million dollars this time, to respond to the crisis in the north of the country.

This funding shortfall is already being felt on the ground: the WFP is already reducing food rations to better distribute them across the country.

A vicious cycle of ruined crops, livestock deaths, displacements and inter-community conflicts

Beyond Ethiopia, the phenomenon is hitting the entire Horn of Africa region hard, as Michael Dunford, the director of the World Food Program's regional office for East Africa, explained on Tuesday: " 

Crops are ruined, cattle die and hunger increases

 ”.

And according to the spokesperson for the WFP, Marie Sasylva, this drought leads to the loss of crops, the death of livestock, but also the displacement of communities " 

and therefore inter-community conflicts and high rates of malnutrition

 ".

The threat to populations is therefore extremely serious.

And the situation requires immediate humanitarian action, as WFP spokesperson Marie Dasylva explains, at the microphone of

Léonard Vincent

.

The threat of drought to the populations of the Horn of Africa is extremely serious and urgent, as WFP spokesperson Marie Dasylva explains.

Leonard Vincent

To read also: 

Horn of Africa: FAO warns of the urgency of aid to avoid a food crisis

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

  • Ethiopia

  • Natural disasters

  • Water

  • Humanitarian

  • Somalia

  • Kenya