A dead cow lying on the side of a road near a village in Garissa, Kenya, on December 9, 2021. Food and water shortages in northern part of the country due to prolonged drought Photo: Ed Ram / Getty Images
Text by Abdi Latif Dahir
East Africa, which has relied heavily on imported agricultural products from both countries, has seen rising food prices following this invasion. Starvation, which was already in a serious condition, is getting worse due to drought.
While these food crises aren’t on the global agenda, support groups have told the US newspaper that the situation is so serious that it needs immediate help.
More than 13 million people are seriously hungry
The drought first came and the river dried up. Rukiya Hussein Ahmed and her family fled the barren southwestern part of Somalia, killing their two children in the process.
Then, the war started in Ukraine, and food prices soared. After reaching the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu, Ahmed is desperate to survive his two remaining children.
March 29, 2022 Internally displaced person camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.Many people affected by the drought sleep on the road for a few days to reach the camp.
Photo: Mohamed Odowa / picture alliance / Getty Images
Throughout East Africa, where rainfall is below average, the worst droughts in the last 40 years have continued, leaving more than 13 million people in severe hunger, according to the United Nations. Seasonal yields have been the lowest in decades, hospitals are flooded with malnourished children, and many families are walking long distances for help.
Most of Somalia is experiencing a catastrophic drought, with nearly one-third of the population starving. In neighboring Kenya, the drought has caused food shortages for more than 3 million people and killed more than 1.5 million livestock.
In Ethiopia, the civil war has blocked the transportation of relief supplies to northern Tigray, causing the worst food shortages in the last six years. Food aid arrived in the state for the first time in three months at the end of last month.
Bread price doubled
Now, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the crisis with rising grain, fuel and fertilizer prices.
Both countries are the largest suppliers of agricultural products such as wheat, soybeans and barley in the region. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), at least half of Africa’s 14 countries rely on Eritrea to import all wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian war has already exacerbated the complex situation in East Africa,” said Gabriella Butcher, executive director of the charity Oxfam International. “East Africa is not on the global agenda right now, but the region needs solidarity with the international community, which it needs now.”
The catastrophic drought and the war in Ukraine exacerbated the series of crises that have occurred in the last two years.
The epidemic of the new coronavirus disrupted the food supply chain and increased spending on staple foods in many households. Factors such as the locust outbreak in Kenya, the civil war in Ethiopia, the floods in South Sudan, the political crisis in Somalia and the intensification of terrorist attacks, and the intensification of ethnic conflicts in Sudan have destroyed farms, exhausted crops and severe food crises. The aid group said.
People fleeing drought and Islamic extremists and arriving at refugee camps in May 2017
Photo: Maurizio Gambarini / picture alliance / Getty Images
It is expected that the Ukrainian war will enter its second month and food prices will rise further across East Africa. Sean Granville-Ross, director of the African region of the US non-governmental organization Mercy Corps, points out that prolonged wars could reduce the “quantity and quality” of staple foods such as wheat. “Meeting the basic needs of vulnerable people affected by the drought will be more costly and difficult,” he said.
This precursor has already occurred in many parts of East Africa.
In Somalia, the price of 20 liters of cooking oil has risen from $ 32 to $ 55, according to data from Mercy Corps. Beans went from $ 18 to $ 28 per 25 kilograms.
In Sudan, bread prices have doubled and some bakeries have closed due to a 60% drop in wheat imports since the beginning of the war, said Sudanese director of the charity Islamic Relief, Elsadig Ernour. ing.
In Kenya, fuel prices have risen because of the Ukrainian war, and some protests have taken place.
3 and 4 years old “I suffered from hunger and died”
Children are particularly vulnerable to famine. According to the Christian aid organization World Vision, an estimated 5.5 million children in East Africa are suffering from the worst levels of malnutrition due to drought.
“My child died of hunger. Both were suffering,” said Ahmed’s three- and four-year-olds, how many days from their home in the lower Shabeellaha village in southern Somalia to the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu. He died when he moved around. “I died under a tree.”
Mother of six children arriving at a camp for internally displaced persons on the outskirts of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, in search of food and water
Photo: Mohamed Odowa / picture alliance / Getty Images
In Mogadishu, the effects of the Ukrainian war have struck, and food prices soaring ahead of Ramadan are putting pressure on households. I don’t have a job or a place to live, and I can’t get the beans, corn, and tomatoes that I used to grow. Ahmed relies on food donations, and he feeds his remaining seven and nine-year-olds.
In addition, aid plans are thin. The Ukrainian war also affected the operation of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). The agency announced last month that it has reduced rations to refugees in East Africa and the Middle East due to rising costs and reduced funding.
Some fear that the ongoing drought in East Africa will lead to a situation similar to the 2011 drought, which killed about 260,000 people in Somalia alone. Although that’s not the case yet, the money and resources needed to avoid such a crisis haven’t yet begun to flow, Oxfam Butcher said.
Of the $ 6 billion that the United Nations needs this year for Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan, only 3% has been allocated. Kenya has only secured 11% of the $ 139 million needed for assistance.
The African Development Bank announced last month that it would raise up to $ 1 billion to improve agricultural production and enable Africans to be self-sufficient in the long run. Butcher says these initiatives are welcome, but a generous donation is needed right now to avoid a broader crisis.
“The world needs to save East Africa to avoid catastrophe,” Butcher said.
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