At least 18.4 million people are already experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity and growing malnutrition in the three Horn of Africa (HOA) countries of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, warned the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

UNOCHA, in its latest situation update released on Friday evening, said the number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity and growing malnutrition in the three countries could rise further to reach 20 million. by September 2022.

In Somalia, some 7.1 million people are now acutely food insecure, including 213,000 people in disaster situations, and 8 regions of the country are at risk of famine by September 2022, with the Bay Area being particularly worrying, according to UNOCHA.

He said about 7.2 million people in Ethiopia and some 4.1 million people in Kenya are severely food insecure due to drought.

At least 7 million head of cattle, on which pastoral families depend for their subsistence and livelihoods, have died in the Horn of Africa, including more than 1.5 million in Kenya, between 2.1 and 2, 5 million in southern and southeastern Ethiopia and 3 million in Somalia, he says.

The death of livestock consequently leads to less access to milk for children in the affected areas, which negatively affects their nutrition.

Humanitarian partners urgently need more than US$1.7 billion to meet rapidly increasing needs in the coming months, as evidenced by drought response plans in Ethiopia, Somalia and the flash appeal for Kenya.

“However, only a small percentage of the funding required under these plans has been received, severely hampering the response to the rapidly worsening drought,” UNOCHA warned.

(Only the title and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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