UN says 23.4m people face acute food insecurity in Horn of Africa

United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa has left 23.4 million people acutely food insecure and 5.1 million children acutely malnourished.

It said 36.6 million people have been affected by the drought across the region, calling for “immediate and medium-to-long-term actions” to prevent and mitigate the worst impacts and reduce vulnerability and risks while building and strengthening resilience.

An estimated 2.7 million people have been displaced by the drought, the WFP said in its latest situation update released on Sunday evening.

Successive below-average harvests, coupled with high production and transport costs, reduced local agricultural produce and led to food price spikes, the WFP said.

It said the impacts of the 2020-2023 droughts are likely to persist for a long time, noting that as droughts have become more frequent and intense, it will take longer for the affected populations to fully recover.

The WFP said favorable rains over March-June led to better-than-normal vegetation conditions in the pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Ethiopia, northern Somalia, and parts of Kenya, compared to the end of 2022 short rains season.

“This signifies improved availability of livestock grazing pastures/forage except in localized areas.

However, in south-central Somalia and southwest Kenya, insufficient precipitation or localized incidences of floods might impact the seasonal harvests, affecting food availability,” it said.