“About five million children under the age of five are estimated to be facing a shortage in 2023 in the Horn region, in the Great Horn. That’s about 10.4 million, that’s an incredible number,” said Liesbeth Aelbrecht, World Health Organization (WHO) event coordinator for the Horn of Africa emergency.
Three years old
“What our colleagues are seeing in hospitals and in hospitals, since the beginning of this year, is a higher level of children who do not have the flu coming to these facilities with medical complications since the crisis began three years ago.”
Commenting on that warning, World Food Program (WFP) Emergencies Director Dominique Ferretti said that almost three years of drought have caused devastating rains and floods: “We have really just finished a rainy season. better than we predicted, One day is not enough to end the problem.”
© WFP/Alessandro Abbonizio
Women fetch water in drought-stricken Marsabit in northern Kenya.
Although the long-awaited rains arrived in March across the eight-member Intergovernmental Organization on Development (IGAD) region – which includes Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda – and with it hope for relief, flash-floods inundated homes and farmland, washed away livestock and closed schools and health facilities.
The result is the highest number of disease outbreaks reported in the Horn of Africa so far this century. Their frequency may be directly linked to extreme weather events, according to the UN health agency.
Ms. Aelbrecht noted ongoing epidemics of tuberculosis and measles, along with “very high numbers” last year and this year, including malaria cases.
“Therefore, with the effect of flooding, we see that these diseases worsen. Malaria, I would like to remind you, is one of the biggest killers in the region.”
Weather complications
Climate concerns are key to food security in the coming months, the UN Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) noted in a press conference in Geneva.
Global forecasts indicate that El Niño weather conditions are already in place and will strengthen during the rest of the year, which may bring above average rainfall. while October to December is the rainy season across the eastern parts of the region, including most of Kenya, the Somali region of Ethiopia and Somalia.
“El Niño may reduce the risk of flooding slightly in flood-prone areas like South Sudan,” said Brenda Lazarus, Food Security and Early Warning Specialist at the FAO Regional Office for Eastern Africa.
However, he pointed out that “on the risk side, below-average rains and dry seasons, along with other drivers of food insecurity will negatively affect agricultural production and increase the already alarming levels .
Investment is key
FAO emphasizes the need to change from a system that focuses mainly on emergency response, to anticipation and mitigation of conflicts through investments such as in rainwater harvesting, soil and water conservation, or using more drought-tolerant crops – and ensuring that crops are available locally.
Involving young people in building silos can also increase community resilience, the UN agency notes.
The 60 million in need of food security include more than 15 million women of childbearing age, 5.6 million adolescent girls and close to 1.1 million pregnant women.
About 360,000 of them are expected to be born in the next three months, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Women who are forced to find food to survive “do so at the expense of their own health,” said Michael Ebele, UNFPA’s Humanitarian Regional Adviser for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Increased risk of death
“Therefore, we see that pregnant women are not able to go for antenatal care, they do not go to other diseases that they may have. And then, that comes with the risks of complications… then there are the risks of maternal deaths are increasing.”
Malnutrition among pregnant and lactating mothers puts unborn and breastfeeding children at risk of malnutrition, and it fuels malnutrition. through all life occurs in the area.
Malnourished mothers are also less able to cope with complications in pregnancy which puts them at greater risk of losing their babies.
“Due to the limited amount of resources, we have seen an increase in sexual survival risks“, Ms. Ebele said, “increases the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse, especially of women and girls”.
Threat initiative grain
Asked by the media that how the Horn of Africa will affect the poor role of the UN Black Sea Commission to facilitate Ukrainian exports to world markets is not renewed next month, Mr. Ferretti of the WFP replied that “it is true that Ukraine is the bread basket. , it is a special provider and it will hit us hard if this Black Sea initiative is not renewed“.
