Oxfam International has called for urgent humanitarian aid for the 21 million people facing severe hunger in East and the Horn of Africa amidst ongoing conflict, flooding and severe drought.
The humanitarian organisation, in a statement, said as many as 28 million people across the region face severe hunger if the March rain fails.
It is understood that over 13 million Ethiopians, Kenyans and Somalis in search of water and pasture have been displaced, just in the first quarter of 2022.
Millions of others had to flee their farmlands and homes by conflicts especially around Ethiopia – where 9.4 million people now need urgent humanitarian aid.
‘East Africa faces a profoundly alarming hunger crisis. Areas of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and beyond are experiencing an unfolding full-scale catastrophe’, Oxfam’s Executive Director, Gabriela Bucher, said in the statement.
‘Even if the rains do arrive this month, full recovery will be near impossible unless urgent action is taken today.
‘The repercussions of the Ukrainian conflict on the global food system will reverberate around the globe, but it is the poorest and most vulnerable people who will be among those hit hardest and fastest.
‘Rising food prices are a hammer blow to millions of people who are already suffering multiple crises, and make the huge shortfall in aid potentially lethal’.
Countries in the region import up to 90 percent of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia and since the crisis in Ukraine started, prices of oil, transport, fertilisers, and food have skyrocketed.
Given these recent developments, Oxfam said it will cooperate with local partners to help people rebuild their lives across the region as it aims to reach over 1.5 million people.
‘East Africa cannot wait. The hunger crisis, fuelled by changes in our climate and Covid-19, is worsening by the day’, Bucher added.
‘Oxfam is calling on all donors to urgently fill the UN humanitarian appeal funding gap and to get funds as quickly as possible to local humanitarian organisations.
‘The governments and warring parties in conflict zones need to ensure humanitarian agencies like Oxfam can safely reach the most vulnerable people’.
Source: Oxfam
Photo source: AMISOM Public Information
