The on going drought in East Africa .....

East Africa is experiencing one of the worst cases of drought and food insecurity. Lots of lives, and livestock have been lost due to the starvation and famine that has characterized this region in the past months. This is largely due to the poor rainfall in 2015 and the ongoing El Niño which has resulted in severe crop failures, this situation is being worsened by the recurring conflict in the region. 

 The conflicts that have gone on for a while in some parts of East Africa such as: Yemen, South Sudan, Burundi has resulted in high rates of displacement of people. This displacement is a contributing factor to the current state of East Africa especially in Ethiopia and South Sudan as regards food security, this is because when displacement occurs, people lose their lands, shelter, farmlands, food stock and livestock. Also, when people are displaced, they are separated from the little sources of food: such as markets and farmlands, water, and other basic necessities of life such as: proper health care and a means of income amidst others. 

Asides from the displacements, when there is crisis and fighting, there is instability and many people would be unable to plant crops.

According to the LA Times, “10.2 million Ethiopians are in critical need of food aid. International agencies are trying desperately to raise funds to prevent the food emergency from deteriorating into a full-fledged famine, but so far they say they have raised only a small portion of the cash they need to offer help. As El Niño continues into 2016, in some regions that have experienced the El Niño-related dryness, access to food is expected to deteriorate significantly.” Serge Tissot of the U.N’s Food and Agriculture Organization also stated that “the World Food Program has less than 5% of the funding it needs to help the people in Ethiopia”. The situation is very critical and as at now, livestock are being severely affected. Apart from the crop failure and death of livestock, about 2.1 million people are severely malnourished in Ethiopia.

The current state of East Africa is not far from full-fledged famine. The international bodies we usually would look up to for help do not have enough resources to completely combat the situation in these regions. It gets worse as the people are forced to consume that which would be used for the next planting season. This poses a threat to the little progress and development this region has recorded over the past decade.

Conclusively, if the conflict in East Africa continues to worsen, then most certainly the issue of food security will also continue to deteriorate. This serves as a call for international intervention firstly to help put an end to this prolonged crisis, provide food supplies to the affected people and then help improve on the state of crops and livestock.

Source: LA Times
Written By: Ozioma Paul