In the Horn of Africa, drought threatens millions

'Some regions in emergency phase of food insecurity':

ETHIOPIA: In Bisle, a remote settlement in Ethiopiaapos;s Somali Region, residents say it is a year since they have had a drop of rain, and their livestock — the area's vital source of income — are dwindling in number as the months go by.

Across the Horn of Africa, a fierce drought is forcing more than 10 million people to rely on emergency food aid, up from a previous forecast of six million, according to the U.N. World Food Programme.

Drought and fighting in Somalia mean about 2.85 million people a third of the population need humanitarian aid, while some 4.5 million out of a population of 80 million are affected in Ethiopia.

In Kenya, the regional economic powerhouse, some 3.5 million are at risk of starvation, the United Nations says.

“The situation across the Horn of Africa this year has really deteriorated in terms of food security and that has caused a deterioration in nutritional security as well,” Kristen Knutson, spokeswoman for the U.N humanitarian affairs office in Ethiopia, told Reuters.

Much of the region relies on the October-December rains, but they failed completely last year. Rainfall during the other vital season March to May was late and erratic this year.

“The immediate cause of this is the La Nina phenomenon that has prevailed over the region and the world from the middle of last year until June when it started dissipating,” Knutson said.

In Bisle, village administrator Ige Farah pointed at abandoned mud shacks once thronged with families. More than 5,000 people from a population of 9,000 have travelled long distances in search of greener pastures this year.

“We won't know for sure when they will return, or whether they ever will,” he said.

The U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) estimates that northeast Kenya, southeast Ethiopia and parts of Somalia mainly in the centre and south will be in an “emergency” phase of food insecurity, the stage before “catastrophe or famine”.

This year's drought is not isolated, and its recurrence is blamed on an anomaly that the region has little to do with.

La Nina, meaning “little girl” in Spanish, is an abnormal cooling of Pacific waters.

The same phenomenon has also been blamed for one of the worst droughts in the southern United States.

Its symptoms are rising temperatures and reduced rainfall, and its most common victims are those living in the dry lowlands of impoverished countries. Reuters