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FILE
- Herders supply water from a borehole to give to their camels near Kuruti, in
Garissa County, Kenya Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. The aid agency Oxfam
International warned Tuesday, March 22, 2022 that widespread hunger across East
Africa could become "a catastrophe" without an injection of funds to
the region's most vulnerable communities. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
Without
an infusion of funding to the region's most vulnerable people, widespread
hunger in East Africa may become a "catastrophe," according to Oxfam,
an international assistance organization.
According
to the United Nations, an estimated 13 million people in the Horn of Africa are
experiencing extreme famine as a result of chronic drought conditions.
Only
3% of the $6 billion required for food assistance has been raised due to
"competing priorities" as the world's attention has been drawn to the
humanitarian situation in Ukraine's war, according to Oxfam International
Executive Director Gabriela Bucher in Nairobi, Kenya's capital.
“The
brutal truth is that at the moment East Africa is not on the global agenda,”
said Bucher. The world risks “ignoring one of the greatest crises,” she said.
“2022 cannot be the year in which hundreds of thousands die from an unavoidable
hunger crisis in East Africa because we couldn’t get this into the agenda.”
The
United Nations World Food Program announced in February that Somalia, Ethiopia,
and Kenya are experiencing the driest circumstances since 1981. More
projections of below-average rainfall are expected to exacerbate the situation
in the following months, according to the agency.
The
region's malnutrition rates are severe, and drought conditions are wreaking
havoc on pastoral and farming populations.
Donors
"don't have to choose" even when it "feels like the world is on
fire." "All people's human rights and humanitarian needs must be
fulfilled," Bucher stated. "Our planet has the capability to do
so."
Somalia
is particularly susceptible due to periodic conflict, and there are fears that
the situation could worsen. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have already been
forced to flee their homes in search of assistance.
In
2011, the United Nations declared a famine in portions of Somalia, killing an
estimated 250,000 people. The children made up half of the group.
Bucher
appealed for a "life-saving" cash injection to help local first
responders cope with the effects of the drought.
"In
Somalia, a life is equivalent to a life everywhere else in the world," she
remarked.
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