FROM southern Ethiopia to northern Kenya and Somalia, 22 million people are at risk of hunger, victims of a historic drought that began in late 2020 and is expected to last for the next few months.
This figure has almost doubled since the beginning of 2022, when 13 million people were facing hunger in the Horn of Africa.
In this region, where the population lives mainly on livestock and agriculture, nearly 5.6 million people are now “acutely food insecure” in Somalia, 12 million in Ethiopia and 4.3 million in Kenya, according to the UN.
More than 1.7 million people have left their homes in search of food and water, according to the latest report from the World Food Programme released on January 23.
Since 2016, eight of the 13 rainy seasons have been below normal, according to data from the Climate Hazards Centre, a reference organization that includes academics and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews).
The current drought is caused by a sequence of five failed rainy seasons since late 2020, the first time this has happened in at least 40 years. However, no famine has yet been officially declared.
