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Tens of thousands of Somalis flee to Kenya in search of food and water

TENS of thousands of Somalis are crossing into Kenya in search of food and water as drought grips the Horn of Africa region.

The United Nations Refugee Agency said on Thursday that nearly a million Somalis have been displaced and over 80,000 have arrived in Kenya in the past two years, fleeing conflict and drought.

The Horn of Africa region faces its worst drought in 40 years, as well as the ongoing conflict with Al-Shabab terrorists. 

There have been four failed rainy seasons in the region, with a fifth predicted. 

According to the UN, Somalia has seen a threefold increase in severe climatic events since 1990.

There have been three major droughts since 2010 and regular locust swarms that have destroyed crops.

The scarcity of water, soil erosion and depleted grazing land has heavily impacted on the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Somalis.

Kenya has provided international protection to refugees from across the region for more than three decades and currently hosts over half a million refugees and asylum-seekers.

UN relief chief Marc Griffiths said that while famine has not yet been declared in Somalia, people there are already dying of hunger.

Michael Dunford, regional director for Eastern Africa at the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said: “The situation is as bad as I have seen and, of course, it’s exacerbated by the conflicts and the insecurity, [which also] make humanitarian access that much more difficult.” 

UN famine prevention & response co-ordinator Reena Ghelani urged the international community “to continue high-level support for humanitarian response”.

The UN mission in Somalia said that 1.5 million children under the age of five face acute malnutrition. 

Without urgent action, at least 500,000 children will be at risk of death by mid-2023, “a pending nightmare we have not seen this century,” Unicef spokesman James Elder said recently.

The drought, and the last four failed rainy seasons, are attributed to climate change. 

“The Somali people have not contributed to climate change, they are not producers of greenhouse gases,” said WFP’s Mr Dunford.

“Yet they are on the front line, experiencing the direct impact and shock [of climate change].”

The UN said it needs an additional $1 billion (£800 million) for emergency food, water and shelter.

“Unfortunately, we have not yet seen the worst of this crisis. If you think 2022 is bad, beware of what is coming in 2023,” he added.

 

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