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Horn of Africa faces impending food crisis
Horn of Africa faces impending food crisis
Narrator: According to the World Food Programme, Kenyans are suffering from the worst drought in almost a decade, with harvests failing for the fourth year in a row in many parts of the country.
The number of Ethiopians requiring emergency food relief has increased by over one million this year alone. And Somalis are facing their worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years, with one in five children suffering from acute malnutrition and no sign of a let-up in the fighting.
Laurent Thomas is the Director for Emergency at the Food and Agriculture Organization, says 23 million people are in an acute humanitarian crisis, many of them with HIV:
Thomas: All these people have exhausted all their capacity to resist, all what we call the resilience deterioration of their situation.
Narrator: In an increasingly publicized emergency, the Horn of Africa is suffering from a severe food crisis. Henri Josserand, Chief of FAO Global Information and Early Warning System, says East Africa and the Horn are the most critical area in the world that FAO is now following:
Josserand: We are really talking about the following countries: Sudan, especially the Southern part which had a drought this year, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, and Tanzania, which is doing better.
Narrator: Mr. Josserand explains why over 20 million people in this part of the world require emergency food assistance:
Josserand: Because of drought, because of displacement of populations due to insecurity and conflict, and because of high food prices.
Narrator: While this region normally produces about 32 million tons of cereals annually, FAO says this year it will produce much less, some 30 million tons. Ramiro Lopez da Silva, Director of Emergencies at the World Food Programme, says we all need to understand that poverty underlies the food situation:
Ramiro: One of the consequences of poverty is evidently chronic malnutrition in those countries. So any shock or sequence of shocks will very quickly increase largely the numbers of people that become food insecure.
Narrator: Also affecting the food crisis is the global economic downturn, which has affected remittances. Again Mr. Lopez da Silva:
Ramiro: If you have a slow global economic downturn, it's going to impact on the savings of the African migrants in the rich countries and as a result it's going to impact on the levels of remittances that go to their countries of origin.
Narrator: Mr.Thomas says that since farmers are the worst affected, we need to scale up assistance to farmers, as well as providing food aid, food assistance and safety nets:
Thomas: Immediate support to boost food production and then urgent need for investment in development.
Narrator: Laurent Thomas of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
(duration: 2'59)
