The World Food Program has warned that famine will threaten at least 22 million people in the Horn of Africa, by next September, as the risk of food insecurity increases due to drought, which reached record levels.
In a statement issued on Friday, the United Nations Program said that “the lack of rain for the fourth consecutive season” since the end of 2020, exacerbated the worst drought in 40 years, led to the death of millions of livestock, destroyed crops, and flooded areas in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. In famine-like conditions, more than a million people were forced to leave their homes in search of water and food.
WFP warned at the beginning of the year that 13 million people in the Horn of Africa were severely food insecure due to drought.
By the middle of the year, after the Russian offensive in Ukraine, that number had risen to 20 million, according to the programme.
Now, the number is expected to rise again to at least 22 million people by next September, and this number will continue to rise, and hunger will worsen if the rains do not fall, in the period from October 1 to December, and the most vulnerable people did not receive humanitarian assistance."
grave danger
The statement stressed that famine "now poses a grave danger, particularly in Somalia," and quoted WFP Executive Director David Beasley as saying, "There appears to be no end in sight to this drought crisis, so we must have the resources necessary to save lives, prevent people slipping into catastrophic levels of starvation and starvation."
The World Food Program considered that "the world must act now to protect the most vulnerable communities from the threat of famine in the Horn of Africa," stressing that it urgently needs $418 million in the next six months to meet these growing needs.
Last month, the United States pledged $1.2 billion in food aid to avert famine in the Horn of Africa.
The United States urged other countries, including China, to do more to address the food crisis exacerbated by the Russian war in Ukraine.