NAIROBI - A sweeping drought across East Africa has left millions of people at risk of starvation, in a region plagued by increasingly erratic rainfall, humanitarian organisations and officials warn.
Huge food shortages and loss of livelihood has left 6.2 million Ethiopians needing relief aid, while about 3.8 million in Kenya’s arid areas, where livestock is being decimated, have also been affected, UN agencies say.
War-ravaged Somalia, meanwhile, is witnessing its worst humanitarian crisis since civil unrest erupted there two decades ago, with a third of its 10 million people in need of food assistance and one in every five children acutely malnourished.
For Kenya, ‘this is the worst (drought) in nearly a decade. One in ten Kenyans are in need of food assistance. In a region where small scale subsistence farming is the mainstay of a majority of the population, the impact of climate change on rainy seasons can often have dramatic consequences.
Responses to drought disasters have similarly been erratic and appeals for donor aid, emergency food distributions and medical assistance frequently dry up when the first drops of rain fall.
And in the absence of permanent solutions, many of those affected by drought find no respite even when the rains come as floods sweep their homes, destroy crops and cause water-borne diseases.
Tanzania recently sent 40,000 tonnes of cereals to its northern regions affected by drought, and where Agriculture Minister Stephen Wasira said famine has been reported.
Rather than suffer food and water shortages sparked by recurring droughts, east African states can take a cue from desert countries like Egypt or Sudan and use irrigation to turn around their plight, experts argue.
Food shortages also spark an increase in commodity prices, feeding a vicious cycle that drives millions closer to starvation.
According to official figures, food prices in Uganda increased by six percent in the last month, while the cost of electricity in neighbouring Kenya rose by 6.5 percent after two key hydroelectric dams shut due to low water levels.
However, forecasters are predicting above-average rainfall in the coming months to last up to early 2010 due to an El Nino phenomenon expected to ease the harsh drought. NAIROBI - A sweeping drought across East Africa has left millions of people at risk of starvation, in a region plagued by increasingly erratic rainfall, humanitarian organisations and officials warn.
Huge food shortages and loss of livelihood has left 6.2 million Ethiopians needing relief aid, while about 3.8 million in Kenya’s arid areas, where livestock is being decimated, have also been affected, UN agencies say.
War-ravaged Somalia, meanwhile, is witnessing its worst humanitarian crisis since civil unrest erupted there two decades ago, with a third of its 10 million people in need of food assistance and one in every five children acutely malnourished.
For Kenya, ‘this is the worst (drought) in nearly a decade. One in ten Kenyans are in need of food assistance,’ Marcus Prior, a World Food Programme spokesman in Nairobi, told AFP.
In a region where small scale subsistence farming is the mainstay of a majority of the population, the impact of climate change on rainy seasons can often have dramatic consequences.
Responses to drought disasters have similarly been erratic and appeals for donor aid, emergency food distributions and medical assistance frequently dry up when the first drops of rain fall.
And in the absence of permanent solutions, many of those affected by drought find no respite even when the rains come as floods sweep their homes, destroy crops and cause water-borne diseases.
Tanzania recently sent 40,000 tonnes of cereals to its northern regions affected by drought, and where Agriculture Minister Stephen Wasira said famine has been reported.
Rather than suffer food and water shortages sparked by recurring droughts, east African states can take a cue from desert countries like Egypt or Sudan and use irrigation to turn around their plight, experts argue.
Food shortages also spark an increase in commodity prices, feeding a vicious cycle that drives millions closer to starvation.
According to official figures, food prices in Uganda increased by six percent in the last month, while the cost of electricity in neighbouring Kenya rose by 6.5 percent after two key hydroelectric dams shut due to low water levels.
However, forecasters are predicting above-average rainfall in the coming months to last up to early 2010 due to an El Nino phenomenon expected to ease the harsh drought.
Huge food shortages and loss of livelihood has left 6.2 million Ethiopians needing relief aid, while about 3.8 million in Kenya’s arid areas, where livestock is being decimated, have also been affected, UN agencies say.
War-ravaged Somalia, meanwhile, is witnessing its worst humanitarian crisis since civil unrest erupted there two decades ago, with a third of its 10 million people in need of food assistance and one in every five children acutely malnourished.
For Kenya, ‘this is the worst (drought) in nearly a decade. One in ten Kenyans are in need of food assistance. In a region where small scale subsistence farming is the mainstay of a majority of the population, the impact of climate change on rainy seasons can often have dramatic consequences.
Responses to drought disasters have similarly been erratic and appeals for donor aid, emergency food distributions and medical assistance frequently dry up when the first drops of rain fall.
And in the absence of permanent solutions, many of those affected by drought find no respite even when the rains come as floods sweep their homes, destroy crops and cause water-borne diseases.
Tanzania recently sent 40,000 tonnes of cereals to its northern regions affected by drought, and where Agriculture Minister Stephen Wasira said famine has been reported.
Rather than suffer food and water shortages sparked by recurring droughts, east African states can take a cue from desert countries like Egypt or Sudan and use irrigation to turn around their plight, experts argue.
Food shortages also spark an increase in commodity prices, feeding a vicious cycle that drives millions closer to starvation.
According to official figures, food prices in Uganda increased by six percent in the last month, while the cost of electricity in neighbouring Kenya rose by 6.5 percent after two key hydroelectric dams shut due to low water levels.
However, forecasters are predicting above-average rainfall in the coming months to last up to early 2010 due to an El Nino phenomenon expected to ease the harsh drought. NAIROBI - A sweeping drought across East Africa has left millions of people at risk of starvation, in a region plagued by increasingly erratic rainfall, humanitarian organisations and officials warn.
Huge food shortages and loss of livelihood has left 6.2 million Ethiopians needing relief aid, while about 3.8 million in Kenya’s arid areas, where livestock is being decimated, have also been affected, UN agencies say.
War-ravaged Somalia, meanwhile, is witnessing its worst humanitarian crisis since civil unrest erupted there two decades ago, with a third of its 10 million people in need of food assistance and one in every five children acutely malnourished.
For Kenya, ‘this is the worst (drought) in nearly a decade. One in ten Kenyans are in need of food assistance,’ Marcus Prior, a World Food Programme spokesman in Nairobi, told AFP.
In a region where small scale subsistence farming is the mainstay of a majority of the population, the impact of climate change on rainy seasons can often have dramatic consequences.
Responses to drought disasters have similarly been erratic and appeals for donor aid, emergency food distributions and medical assistance frequently dry up when the first drops of rain fall.
And in the absence of permanent solutions, many of those affected by drought find no respite even when the rains come as floods sweep their homes, destroy crops and cause water-borne diseases.
Tanzania recently sent 40,000 tonnes of cereals to its northern regions affected by drought, and where Agriculture Minister Stephen Wasira said famine has been reported.
Rather than suffer food and water shortages sparked by recurring droughts, east African states can take a cue from desert countries like Egypt or Sudan and use irrigation to turn around their plight, experts argue.
Food shortages also spark an increase in commodity prices, feeding a vicious cycle that drives millions closer to starvation.
According to official figures, food prices in Uganda increased by six percent in the last month, while the cost of electricity in neighbouring Kenya rose by 6.5 percent after two key hydroelectric dams shut due to low water levels.
However, forecasters are predicting above-average rainfall in the coming months to last up to early 2010 due to an El Nino phenomenon expected to ease the harsh drought.
Interesting analysis on the situation in east Africa. In comparison to the impoverished stretch of sand further north, it is truly shocking how the situation isn't much better. The true issue of food distribution around the globe will forever be an assiduous struggle...until the next century espy a breakthrough in the beaming of food across seas. For the sake of the African continent as a whole I say "oh rain, where art though?"
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