Horn of Africa drought 'set to worsen': UN

http://news.yahoo.com/horn-africa-drought-set-worsen-un-091141108.html

By William Davies
7/16/2011

The plight of millions of people left hungry by a harsh drought across the Horn of Africa is set to worsen, with the next rains expected in October and harvests months away, a top UN official warned Saturday.

Scanty or failed rainfall in the region over the past two years has already forced thousands of Somalis to flee the country and ruined the livelihoods of millions in parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

"We are possibly seeing a perfect storm in the coming months ... We are going to do everything we can to ameliorate it," UNICEF director Anthony Lake told AFP on his way to the drought-hit northern Kenya region of Turkana.

"We are scaling up in every way we can ... It is very bad now. There will be no major harvests until some time next year. The next six months are going to be very tough," added Lake.
Turkana is one of Kenya's badly-affected regions where malnutrition rates have increased to 37 percent, compared to 15 percent in 2010, according to the aid organisation Oxfam.
A nurse in Lodwar, Turkana's main town, said the number of children admitted suffering mulnitrition had doubled since last year.

"It (the drought) is the worst I have ever seen. We have admitted twice the number of children compared to last year," said Anne Lojao.

"Many children arrive already malnourished and weak and some are irritable, but they are the lucky ones who make it here."

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Western countries and other donors have pledged millions of dollars in aid for the drought-stricken population and Lake said more still needed to be done to ease the suffering of the affected people.

UNICEF said last week it needed 31.8 million dollars (22 million euro) for the coming three months to assist millions of affected women and children.

The agency estimates that more than two million children are malnourished across the drought-ravaged Horn of Africa region and are in need of urgent help to survive.
Around 500,000 of them face imminent, life-threatening conditions.

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