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Fri, 9 May 19:49:48 GMT17

 
E. African hunger

Last reviewed: 21-06-2007

Floods and conflict compound food shortages


Torrential rains in late 2006 flooded wide swathes of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, cutting off hundreds of thousands of people from urgently needed food aid. Outbreaks of cholera, diarrhea and Rift Valley fever compounded the misery of populations already devastated by drought and acute food shortages in early 2006.

  • Millions in need
  • Drought gives way to flooding
  • El Nino, deforestation and warming oceans partly to blame.

    The disaster was partly due to a moderate el Nino weather pattern, which caused massive downpours. Oxfam calculated that more than 563,000 people were affected by the floods in Kenya. Although the floods subsided in 2007, some 23,000 people were displaced along the Kenya coast by heavy rains in June

    As of the middle of the year, more than a million people were in need of emergency food aid in Ethiopia following severe hailstorms which damaged staple and cash crops in southeastern areas of the country. In Somalia, the recent surge in fighting has disrupted trade and increased the price of available goods, severely restricting the availability of food. About 400,000 people have fled Mogadishu since February.

    Last year's heavy rains in the region came hard on the heels of a long drought that culminated in October 2005 with the complete failure of the short-rains season.

    Consequent crop failure and the depletion of livestock herds left rural pastoralist communities - already weakened by years of underinvestment, marginalisation and armed conflict - unable to cope. Tens of thousands of animals and several hundred people died from hunger and thirst.

    At the height of the emergency in early 2006, the United Nations estimated that more than 11 million people in parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Burundi and Tanzania were in need of food aid.

    According to the U.N. environment programme (UNEP), the relentless cyclical drought is in part caused by massive deforestation in the region.

    Meteorological experts also say that the recent heavy rains have been exacerbated by winds coming from the Indian and Atlantic Oceans and weather systems off the northwest coast of Africa.

    Key statistics


    Number of people malnourished (2001-03) 86.9 million
    Proportion of malnourished in total population (2001-2003) 39 percent
    Source: The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006 - FAO report

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