The humanitarian crisis is caused by the most prolonged and severe drought in recent history is set to deepen further as a sixth consecutive failed rainy season in March-May.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, said more than 8 million people require food assistance in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, with about 332,000 in urgent need and extremely at risk.
The agency has also appealed for $137 million to provide life-saving assistance to more than 3 million refugees and internally displaced people in the three countries, who are struggling to survive amid scarce water sources, hunger, insecurity and conflict.
Olga Sarrado, A UNHCR spokeswoman, said, prices of essential food stuffs remain at an all-time high and out of reach for many people. The dangerous confluence of climate and conflict in the region is worsening an already dire humanitarian situation, she added furthur.
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that the number of people facing crisis or worse acute food insecurity outcomes will increase to about 6.5 million across Somalia between April and June, including 223,000 people who are likely to face catastrophic hunger.
Magatte Guisse, humanitarian coordinator for Somalia ad interim, urged donors to continue to stand with the people of Somalia at this time of unprecedented and devastating drought and asked to provide additional funding to maintain the life-saving response beyond March.
Currently, 288,000 people have internally been displaced in Somalia due to conflict and drought, the UN refugees agency said, adding that more than 180,000 refugees from Somalia and South Sudan have crossed into drought-affected areas of Kenya and Ethiopia.
Abdullahi Ali, who arrived in the camp in the 1990s and who serves as a community leader helping new arrivals settle in, told the UNHCR that while the refugees in Dadaab have gone through many challenges, nothing can be compared to what they are going through now.
He said the forecast of a sixth failed rainy season has dampened his prospects of returning home. He said,”I cannot go back to Somalia because the challenges are still there. The drought is still there. My farm, animals and even my house have been destroyed,”.
