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NAIROBI,
September 5, 2009 — A sweeping drought across East Africa has left
millions of people at risk of starvation, in a region plagued by
increasingly erratic rainfall, humanitarian organizations and officials
warn.
Huge food shortages and loss of livelihood has left 6.2 million
Ethiopians needing relief aid, while about 3.8 million in Kenya's arid
areas, where livestock is being decimated, have also been affected, UN
agencies say.
War-ravaged Somalia is witnessing its worst humanitarian crisis since
civil unrest erupted there two decades ago, with a third of its 10
million people in need of food assistance and one in every five children
acutely malnourished.
Three years ago, a searing drought put more than 11 million people in
the region at risk of starvation.
For Kenya, "this is the worst (drought) in nearly a decade. One in ten
Kenyans are in need of food assistance," Marcus Prior, a World Food
Programme spokesman in Nairobi, told AFP.
"The situation is extremely serious. Rains have failed across many
areas," said Prior, whose organization recently appealed for 230 million
dollars to help drought victims.
In a region where small scale subsistence farming is the mainstay of a
majority of the population, the impact of climate change on rainy
seasons can often have dramatic consequences.
Response to drought disasters have similarly been erratic and band-aid:
appeals for donor aid, emergency food distributions and medical
assistance, all of which quickly dry up when the first drops of rain
fall.
And in the absence of permanent solutions, many of those affected by
drought find no respite even when the rains come as floods sweep their
homes, destroy crops and cause water-borne diseases.
Tanzania recently sent 40,000 tones of cereals to its northern regions
affected by drought, and where Agriculture Minister Stephen Wasira said
famine has been reported.
"There are pockets of famine in northern regions... 'Short' rains failed
and 'long' rains were inadequate," Wasira said, referring to the two
main rainy seasons.
The WFP is also feeding more than one million Ugandans, mainly in the
northern and eastern regions as a prolonged drought weighs heavy on the
people.
"If the rains do not (increase) in the next few days then we are headed
for trouble," Ugandan Information Minister Kabakumba Masiko told AFP.
"Daily, we get reports of food shortage from some regions and the
government has been intervening by delivering relief (food)."
Ugandan livestock have also started dying and officials fear the trend
will have a negative impact on meat and milk supplies to a large swathe
of east Africa.
"We are losing animals due to starvation because of drought especially
in the cattle corridors," Ugandan state minister for animal husbandry,
Bright Rwamirama told a news conference in Kampala Thursday, but gave no
figures.
Animals are also dying for lack of water and foliage and a result of
overgrazing, the minister said. Rwamirama is the first government
official to confirm death of animals in Uganda, a food basket for Sudan,
Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya.
Rather than suffer food and water shortages sparked by recurring
droughts, east African states can take a cue from desert countries like
Egypt or Sudan and use irrigation to turn around their plight, experts
argue.
"We wait for harsh events to occur and then run in panic," said Kenyan
soil scientist Peter Okoth. "Irrigation would certainly overcome the
perennial drought."
"It's a shame that we are actually begging for food yet we have a lot of
water and we have enough land that is lying idle."
Food shortages also spark an increase in commodity prices, feeding a
vicious cycle that drives millions closer to starvation.
According to official figures, food prices in Uganda increased by six
percent in the last month, while the cost of electricity in neighboring
Kenya rose by 6.5 percent after two key hydroelectric dams shut due to
low water levels.
However, forecasters are predicting above-average rainfall in the coming
months to last up to early 2010 due to an El Nino phenomenon expected to
ease the harsh drought.
Source: AFP, Sept 03, 2009
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