![]() In a country heavily reliant on imported food – which accounts for 90 percent of Djibouti’s supplies – high food and energy costs are forcing families like Fatouma’s to eat fewer or less nutritious meals. “The only water source we all have access to is a couple of water forages (pond-like water points) that are now becoming emptier by the day,” says Fatouma. The fragile ecosystems where they live, and the way of life these lands have sustained for generations, are gradually collapsing due to erratic climatic patterns. Now, I’m left with a few and they’ve started to be-come weak and I’m not sure how long they’ll live.”Įxtreme food and water scarcity have killed around 7 million livestock across the Horn of Africa, imperiling livelihoods of pastoralists such as Bergi and Fatouma, who rely on them for food and income. “I started selling them one by one to feed my family, but it was never enough. “Before the drought, I had a total of 20 goats,” says Fatouma Daoud, a farmer from a remote area northwest of the capital. It’s a similar picture in the tiny coastal country of Djibouti. There’s an urgent need to invest in interventions to prevent malnutrition so that we don’t lose an entire generation to the drought,” adds Dunford. “What we’re witnessing is a threefold increase in the number of malnutrition cases. To avert a humanitarian catastrophe, WFP has scaled up its operations to reach 8.5 million people across the Horn of Africa with food and cash assistance as well as nutrition support for young children and mothers. Today, they are on the move in search of food, pasture, water and alternative livelihoods. The climate crisis that has uprooted more than 1 million people. So, we are entering a whole new phase in climate change,” says WFP’s Michael Dunford “This is the worst drought, the driest it’s ever been in 40 years. ![]() Some 3.9 million children are severely malnourished in Ethiopia alone, or roughly half all those suffering from malnutrition across the Horn of Africa. “Mothers and children have started to gain weight and are slowly getting back on their feet.” “I observe big changes a few days after they’ve been introduced to the nutritional food supplements,” she says. She made it to the Eria Ambule health post with her 11-month baby when their health started to deteriorate.īehailua, is one of the nurses who works there, treating children aged under-5 and their mother’s suffering malnutrition. She lives in the South Omo zone, in Ethiopia’s southeast, near the border with Kenya. Pastoralists in the southern and eastern lowlands of the country have powerlessly watched another predator – drought – reduce their livestock to skin and bones.īergi witnessed the scorching weather decimate her crops and animals. In Ethiopia, food prices are at an all-time high and have been since the height of the pandemic. “We also need to start preparing for the next shock – whether that’s the next drought, the next flood or the next crisis” says Michael Dunford, the World Food Programme’s Regional Director for East Africa. ![]() “We also need to start preparing for the next shock – whether that’s the next drought, the next flood or the next crisis.” “We don’t have the luxury of just focusing on what needs to be done today,” says Michael Dunford, the World Food Programme’s Regional Director for East Africa. Disruptions to grain supplies and rising prices caused by the war in Ukraine have pushed more and more people to the brink – in regions already reeling from skyrocketing costs resulting from the intersection of climate change, conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |