Millions at risk as drought threatens the Horn of Africa

In Ethiopia’s Somali region, people have seen the failures of what should have been three straight rainy seasons.

Droughts come and go over the years, but one resident told a visiting team with the United Nations children’s agency that she and her seven children have never seen one like this.

The government distributed food and fodder during the last drought five years ago, she said. This time, “we don’t have enough food for our family.”

More than 6 million people in Ethiopia are expected to need urgent humanitarian aid by mid-March, UNICEF said Tuesday.

And in neighboring Somalia more than 7 million people need urgent help, the Somali NGO Consortium said in a separate statement, pleading with international donors to give much more.

This could be the region’s worst drought in 40 years, the consortium said.

UNICEF estimates that more than 150,000 children in such areas of Ethiopia have dropped out of school to help fetch scarce water and handle other chores.

UNICEF’s Ethiopia representative told a U.N. briefing in Geneva by videoconference on Tuesday that some water sources were drying up or already dry, and pointed to the need to rehabilitate wells, drill boreholes and get water to health and nutrition systems.

He said the Ethiopian government’s conflict with fighters from the country’s northern Tigray region has had no impact on UNICEF’s response to the drought-stricken areas hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the southeast.

AP