IPS – The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) has raised a red flag over the worsening food security situation in the Horn of Africa.

Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner in charge of development and humanitarian aid, attributes the disastrous situation to the terrible potential of climate change.

“Large parts of the Horn of Africa have had less than 75 percent of normal rainfall this year, having already endured a series of severe droughts. The population can no longer cope with such extreme and protracted hardship which often comes on top of conflict situation. As a result, more than 16 million people desperately need help,” he said in a statement released by ECHO.

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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

Aid from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reached 1.3 million Somalis in the war-wracked Horn of Africa nation last month, but funding shortfalls prevented the agency from assisting millions more in need, it was announced today.

Over 22,000 metric tons of food were distributed, but with less than half of funds needed received, WFP was forced to scale back its operations, making it unable to reach all 3 million Somalis with 48,000 metric tons of food than the agency had hoped to.

WFP urgently needs a nearly $200 million influx to allow it to feed 3.3 million Somalis through next April.

Over the past week, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) partnered with a local organization to distribute hundreds of hygiene kits, including soap and towels, to people living in a settlement for internally displaced persons (IDPs) outside of the war-battered capital, Mogadishu, which has experienced escalated fighting in recent months.

Read more – http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32491&Cr=somali&Cr1=