Presbyterian Church in Ireland - Mission Overseas - East Africa food crisis escalating

9th October 2009

Twenty five years after the East Africa famine a new food crisis is escalating in the region.

Some 20 million people are suffering hunger in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and are in need of emergency aid, says the World Food Programme.

A disastrous cocktail of factors have combined to leave so many in jeopardy:

• Climatic changes have led to unreliable rainy seasons
• Lack of rain has brought successive years of drought
• Crops have failed
• Livestock has perished
• Food prices have increased
• Insecurity, mainly in Kenya and Somalia, has uprooted vulnerable people and hampered aid responses.

In Ethiopia, an estimated 6.2 million require emergency food assistance. Find out more.

In Kenya, 3.8 million Kenyans, mostly in rural areas, face high to extreme food insecurity, up from 2.6 million in March. Find out more.

In Somalia, half the population – 3.8 million people – are needing help to stay alive.

In Uganda’s Karamoja region, 1.15 million people are facing food insecurity – that’s 95 per cent of the area’s population.

Tearfund is working with local churches and partners to respond.

Last year, Tearfund launched the East Africa Food Crisis Appeal, that enabled them to provide emergency food aid and longer term livelihood support to thousands of people across the region.

Tearfund still needs support to enable them to continue such work.

Source: Tearfund