As a new report warns an estimated 43,000 people died amid the longest drought on record in Somalia last year, international development agency Christian Aid has called on the UK Government to “urgently get more funding to the front line.”
The report, released by the World Health Organization and the United Nations children’s agency, is the first official death toll announced in the drought. At least 18,000 people are forecast to die in the first six months of this year.
Somalia and neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya are facing a sixth consecutive failed rainy season while rising global food prices complicate the hunger crisis.
Jennifer Larbie, Christian Aid's Interim Head of of Global Advocacy & Policy, said:
“Millions are taking desperate measures to survive in the face of failed harvests, livestock deaths, water shortages and extreme hunger. As we have for Ukraine, we have a moral duty to act.
“The UK Government needs to heed the alarms. Ministers must urgently get more funding to the front line of this hunger crisis, mobilise the international community to act and ensure all humanitarian support is directed to local actors who are best placed to respond.”
ENDS.
Notes to editors:
Working through local partners, Christian Aid is responding in Ethiopia and Kenya. The charity is helping over 300,000 people by repairing wells, handing out water purification kits, providing cash support and trucking water to drought affected communities as well as providing fodder and medicine to keep valuable livestock alive.
One of many people Christian Aid is supporting is Adoko Hatoro Engang. He is 76 and living in an internally displaced person camp in South Omo with his family. Recurrent drought and flooding, due to the climate crisis and the overflowing river, has destroyed his farmland and depleted his livestock. This is causing hunger for his family.
“I remember when I was young, the rains would follow the drought season, and flooding devastated everything”, Adoko Hatoro Engang explains. He adds: “If I am able, I eat once a day. We only share very small amounts of food we cook, using the money Christian Aid gave us.”