IRC Raises Hunger Concerns in East Africa

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called for a full scale-up of aid response in East Africa to mitigate famine.

IRC, in a recent report, warned that three million people across the region could die of hunger if urgent international funding was not received.

According to IRC, people are already dying of starvation across Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, with 20 million people estimated to go hungry by September 2022.

In the report, titled Watchlist Crisis Alert: Unnatural disaster in East Africathe humanitarian organisation highlighted the Horn of Africa as one of the top regions at risk of deteriorating from a humanitarian perspective over the course of the year.

Hunger has worsened in the region after four consecutive failed rainy seasons, outstripping the limited funds available.

The Russia-Ukraine crisis has exacerbated the situation as East Africa imports 90 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

The number of people going hungry in Somalia has doubled, while the number in Kenya has tripled.

Despite this dire situation, the region is struggling to receive the much-needed humanitarian response.

‘There is nothing natural about famines in the 21st century. While a complex set of factors are driving extreme hunger, the slide into famine and mass death is man-made, driven by international inaction’, IRC’s President, David Miliband, said in the report.

‘This crisis was predictable and preventable. It has been unfolding over two years of repeated warnings and worsening hunger. What we are witnessing is an unnatural disaster of catastrophic proportions’.

IRC called for the setup of a donor coordination mechanism with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), given their critical role as implementers and responders on the ground.

It also advised that top donors to the response should establish a coordinated mechanism to regularly convene both national and international NGOs.

Photo source: Reuters/Feisal Omar

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