rfi.fr
The Horn of Africa is one of the regions hardest hit by climate change
From southern Ethiopia to northern Kenya via Somalia, 22 million people are threatened by hunger, victims of a historic drought that began at the end of 2020 and is expected to last in the coming months. This figure has almost doubled since the beginning of 2022, when 13 million people faced hunger in the Horn of Africa.
In this region where the population lives mainly from livestock and agriculture, nearly 5.6 million people are today in a situation of “acute food insecurity” in Somalia, 12 million in Ethiopia and 4. 3 million in Kenya, according to the UN. More than 1.7 million people have left their homes in search of water and food, according to a latest report from the World Food Program published on January 23.
Since 2016, eight of the thirteen rainy seasons have been below normal, according to data from the Climate Hazards Center, a reference body which includes academics and the Early Warning Systems Network. against starvation (Fews).
The current drought is caused by a series of five failed rainy seasons since the end of 2020, unheard of for at least 40 years. However, no famine has yet been officially declared. The last famine in the region, which killed 260,000 people, half of them children under six in Somalia in 2011, resulted from two consecutive poor rainy seasons.
with agencies