United Nations Radio

The World Food Programme is warning that millions of people in the Horn of Africa are once again facing a food crisis.

Food crisis in Horn of Africa

UN Radio's Derrick Mbatha asked Peter Smerdon of the World Food Programme to explain why:

Smerdon: The nature of the problem is a mix of persistent drought at least for the past two, three years in many countries, poor seasonal rains so far this year, conflict in some places and the high cost of food, which despite it coming down in many developed countries, has remained sticky and high in many developing countries. :45
In addition, there is also the global financial crisis, which threatens to exacerbate hunger across the region because people are loosing their jobs and people who need remittances to survive in many harsh parts of the Horn are no longer receiving those remittances or the remittances are going down.

Mbatha: And how many people are we talking about here and in which countries?

Smerdon: We're talking about WFP, the World Food Programme, currently providing food assistance to 17 million people in the Horn of Africa and that consists of 8.6 million in Ethiopia, 3.8 million in Kenya, 3.5 million in Somalia, just over one million in Karamoja in Uganda and some 150 thousand in Djibouti.

Mbatha: How are the people surviving right now?

Smerdon: Well, they are finding it increasingly hard to survive and unless the rains improve quickly, the situation will only worsen. Basically, they are pulling their kids out of school, they're cutting down on meals to perhaps one a day, they are sending their kids to go and try and find work, but there isn't much work around because everyone is doing the same thing. They are selling trees and producing charcoal to sell but prices for charcoal are very low because everyone because everyone else is doing that at the same time. They are eating wild berries and wild fruit, but it is very difficult for people ...(fade out)

Mbatha: What are the governments in the region doing to tackle this crisis? Are they capable of doing anything?

Smerdon: it's difficult for the governments to tackle this size of crisis. Basically in all these countries, it consists of the governments plus UN agencies, ngos and donors getting together and working out how they can help these large numbers of people in need of assistance across the region 2:55 The difficulty is that governments themselves are being squeezed by the global economic crisis. In addition, this is seen as a bit of a chronic problem because it has gone on at least for the last three years. So although the situation is now increasingly worse, there just doesn't seem to be the resources there to provide the size of response we need now.

Mbatha: What about the World Food Programme which is trying to help in this situation? Does it have enough resources? 3:28

Smerdon: No we don't have enough resources. Six months into the year, at the moment we are carrying shortfalls for the next three months of almost $450 million for those countries. So that is a very large shortfall to have half way through the year. And unless we receive large amounts of money very quickly, preferably cash so we can buy food as near as possible to the crisis, people will increasingly suffer and we will have to 4:00 _start rations orprioritize, decide which people will receive food and which people will not. And they will go hungry.

Mbatha: And what message is your agency sending?

Smerdon: That these people are already living on the edge. Many 4:47 have been plunged into destitution. The rains so far this year haven't been sufficient to make us think that the situation will improve. It probably will only get worse and that these people really need assistance to stay alive. It's as stark as that. 5:07

Narrator: Peter Smerdon of the World Food Programme was interviewed by UN Radio's Derrick Mbatha.

(duration: 3'55")