Tag: drought

In the Sahel region of West Africa, a severe food crisis has been expected since late 2011. The aid community estimates that some 18.7 million people are now being affected and are now at risk.The UN estimates that $1.6 billion is needed to meet the needs of all these people, but their international appe

It is one year since the UN declared Somalia as being in “famine”. But despite the cameras moving elsewhere the emergency is far from over – right now over a quarter of the country’s population are still in food crisis – relying on humanitarian aid to survive. Added to this recent poor rains mean that over a million more could fall back into crisis if early warnings are not acted upon immediately.

It is a year now since the world woke up to what has been called the worst food crisis in the 21st century. The footage of Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya was truly awful, and the conditions people were living in when they arrived at Dollo Ado camp in Ethiopia were quite shocking. The UN categorized parts of Somalia as being in famine – a term used so rarely now that we had started to think it no longer happens.

In the Sahel region of West Africa, families are facing a grim reality. A food crisis is now threatening more than 15 miillion people. Without help they won't get enough to eat.

Drought, poor harvets, and high prices in the market are part of the problem -- and so is poverty. It forces farmers and herders to make impossible choices: If they sell their tools and livestock now, to get money to get food, then how will they make a living later when the rains return?