The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for an immediate response to prevent widespread drought conditions from becoming a catastrophe in the Horn of Africa.
This was because only one-quarter of expected rainfall was recorded during the October-December period.
FAO Deputy Director-General, Climate and Natural Resources, Maria Semedo told a high-level panel on humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa chaired by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.
The Horn of Africa is the region that is home to the countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.
The meeting held on the sidelines of the on-going 28th African Union Summit in Addis-Ababa, according to a statement.
The statement issued by the Office of the Secretary-General, said the UN Agricultural Agency, while calling for urgent action, warned of dire food shortages in the region.
“The magnitude of the situation calls for scaled up action and coordination at national and regional levels.
“This is above all, livelihoods and humanitarian emergency, and the time to act is now.
“We cannot wait for a disaster like the famine in 2011,” Semedo said.
FAO estimates that more than 17 million people are currently in crisis and emergency food insecurity levels in member-countries of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
The countries are; Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.
“Currently, close to 12 million people across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are in need of food assistance,’’ she said.
Much of Somalia, North-East and coastal Kenya, South-East of Ethiopia as well as the Afar region are yet to recover from El Niño-induced drought of 2015 to 2016, while South Sudan and Darfur region of Sudan are facing the protracted insecurity.
According to Semedo, acute food shortage and malnutrition also remains a major concern in many parts of South Sudan, Sudan (West Darfur) and Uganda’s Karamoja region.
FAO warned that if response is not immediate and sufficient, the risks are massive and the costs high.
The UN Secretary-General Guterres also called for a stronger commitment to work together among UN Member States and partners.
“We must express total solidarity with the people of Ethiopia on the looming drought as a matter of justice,” Guterres said.
FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, Bukar Tijani also said the situation in the region was critical.
“FAO’s partnership to build resilience to shocks and crises in the Horn of Africa is critical and will increase,” Tijani said.
Tijani recently said that FAO and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-country trade bloc in East Africa, had agreed on some key steps.
The steps he said would enhance collaboration in mitigating the severe drought currently affecting the countries in the Horn of Africa region as well as strengthen food security and resilience analysis. (NAN)
