UNICEF is deeply concerned about the increasing number of children affected by drought and hunger in the Horn of Africa. According to latest UNICEF estimates, almost five million children under the age of five are now suffering from the consequences of chronic food insecurity caused by prolonged drought and the impact of the continuing conflict in Somalia, which affects wider parts of the region. Since May 2009, the number of young children in need of emergency assistance in the Horn has increased by nearly one million.

According to UN data, some 24 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and parts of Uganda now need food aid and other humanitarian assistance, up from 20 million earlier this year. UNICEF estimates that for the whole of 2009 some 500,000 children under five will suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.

The current drought has been caused by low and erratic rainfalls across the region with less than 50 per cent of normal precipitation. For countries such as Kenya it is the fourth consecutive failed rainy season in a row. The dry spell already led to enormous losses in livestock, increases in food prices and severe water shortages.

The El Niño weather pattern during the upcoming rainy season is likely to bring flooding in parts of the region which may cause additional crop failures and a further increase of water borne diseases and acute malnutrition. During the past months, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia already registered more than 65,000 cases of cholera or acute watery diarrhoea, exceeding figures of the previous two years. El Niño flooding may also disrupt hard pressed education services in a region where already millions of children are out of school due to chronic emergency situations.

Read more – http://www.unicef.org/media/media_51409.html