About 1.4 Million Kids at ‘Imminent Risk of Death’ amid Looming Famine

Famine looms in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen – UNICEF

Almost 1.4 million children are at imminent risk of death from severe acute malnutrition this year, as famine looms in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, UNICEF said today.

“Time is running out for more than a million children,” said UNICEF Executive Director. “We can still save many lives. The severe malnutrition and looming famine are largely man-made. Our common humanity demands faster action. We must not repeat the tragedy of the 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa.”

• In northeast Nigeria, up to 450,000 children face severe acute malnutrition is expected this year in the conflict-affected states.
• In Somalia, drought conditions are threatening an already fragile population battered by decades of conflict. Almost half the population, or 6.2 million people, are facing acute food insecurity and in need of humanitarian assistance. Up to 270,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year. 
• In South Sudan over 270,000 children are severely malnourished amid conflict, poverty and insecurity. The total number of food insecure people across the country is expected to rise from 4.9 million to 5.5 million at the height of the lean season in July… 
• In Yemen 462,000 children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition – a nearly 200 per cent increase since 2014.

The report comes just a day after famine was declared in parts of Unity state in southern South Sudan, where 20,000 children live.

Famine Declared in South Sudan with 100,000 People Facing Starvation

Food insecurity becomes a famine…

UN OCHA has declared that a famine exists in two regions of southern Somalia, and warned that the famine could soon spread to the rest of southern Somalia.

A famine is declared when three measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger coincide: “at least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent; and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons.”

Severe drought, failed harvest, years of civil war and now economic collapse have placed 100,000 people in the southern South Sudan at risk of starvation, with an additional one million people on the brink of famine, according to UN agencies.

• Tens of thousands have already perished.
• More than three million people have been forced from their homes.
• Many are living in UN refugee camps across the country.
• One and a half million have fled across the border to neighboring countries.

Famines have been declared previously in southern areas of Sudan in 2008; in Gode in the Somali region of Ethiopia in 2000; in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 1996; in Somalia in 1991-1992, and Ethiopia in 1984-1985, according to WFP.

Drought-Stricken Farmers Eating Termites in Kenya

‘Humanitarian Catastrophe’ in Horn of Africa:

Debilitating drought destroys crop, sending food prices skyrocketing, and forcing millions of people and their dying animal to migrate.  

The Government of Kenya declared a national drought emergency on 10 February. The latest round of debilitating drought has affected 23 of 47 counties across the country. “The number of food insecure people more than doubled – from 1.3 million to 2.7 million. Some 357,285 children and pregnant and lactating mothers are acutely malnourished,” said UN OCHA.

Maize production in the coastal areas has decreased by 99 per cent compared to the long term average.

The rainfall deficit in the Horn of Africa has been particularly acute across Somalia, multiple parts of  Ethiopia,  Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan.

“According to the Nairobi-based International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe), a growing number of farmers in eastern and western Kenya are now harvesting and eating insects like termites to cope with prolonged drought.”

Situation Overview [UN OCHA]

• The 2016 Deyr or short rains season (October to December) brought severely low levels of rainfall to the region.
• The situation is worse than in 2010-11 in many ways.
• The drought has had a major impact on water resources, including on river flow levels and the availability of water for human and livestock consumption.
• Widespread crop failures have affected farming and agro-pastoral communities in most of Somalia, southwestern Ethiopia and northeastern Kenya, with food prices skyrocketing.
• Livestock are becoming increasingly weak, contracting diseases and dying at alarming rates, with catastrophic consequences for pastoral communities.
• Terms of trade are declining sharply for pastoralists, contributing to rising food insecurity and malnutrition.
• Household production of milk and meat is low and the price of milk and other dairy products has skyrocketed.
• 12.8 million people in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia face are severely food insecure and are in need of humanitarian assistance.
• Approximately 600,000 children aged 6 to 59 months in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia will be in need of treatment for severe acute malnutrition in 2017 and this number is expected to rise rapidly. In Somalia, 13 out of 27 rural and displaced groups have Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates above emergency (15 per cent) levels.
• The drought and the associated reduced access to water and sanitation has the potential to further exacerbate ongoing disease outbreaks and create new ones. About 15 million people will not have access to safe drinking water in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in 2017.
• Drought, economic shocks and conflict in the region have disrupted the education of approximately 6 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
• The drought has triggered movements of families in search of grazing land, water and work, increasing the risk of family separation and tensions among communities over scarce resources.
• Repeated cycles of climatic shocks, coupled with insufficient recovery periods, have limited household and community coping mechanisms.

FIRE-EARTH Alert: HFRC

CJ Members

FIRE-EARTH Alert: Horn of Africa – Convergence of Climatic, Conflict and Economic Shocks

• The number of food insecure people in the region facing Crisis and Emergency has more than doubled in the 12 months to September from 11.0 million to 23.4 million people. The worst affected countries are Ethiopia (9.7 million people), South Sudan (4.79 million people), and Sudan (4.42 million people).

• Full details of the Alert are available from FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.

Mega Disasters Uproot 144 Million Africans in 4 Years

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC EVENTS
MAJOR DISASTERS
MASS DISPLACEMENTS
SCENARIOS 444, 101, 070, 066, 023, 09, 04, 03
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Extreme climatic events, related conflicts displace 144 million in the Horn of Africa

Some 144 million people have been displaced  in the Horn of Africa region between 2008 and 2012 due to the mega disasters caused by climate change, according to a joint report by the Institute for Environment and Human Security of United Nations University, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

The new report by said thousands of people in the Horn of Africa are at risk of being displaced across borders as extreme weather increases in frequency.

“As extreme weather increases in intensity thousands are at risk of being displaced. Many of the displaced receive some assistance, but the support varies. There is a need for more predictive protection and assistance. We must start in the hardest affected regions,” according to NRC spokesperson.

Sudanese Famine 1993. A vulture patiently awaits a starving Sudanese child to die, dated March 1993. Pulitzer Prize winning photo by the deceased photojournalist Kevin Carter.

The majority of those displaced in the four-year period fled from floods, storms and wildfires and other impacts of climate change, said  the report.

Most of the victims remained in their own countries as internally displaced people, but many fled across the borders to neighboring countries.

“Drought forces people to leave their homes in Somalia and Ethiopia and flee to Kenya, Egypt or Yemen. Most of those fleeing are pastoralists, small scale farmers and agro-pastoralists,” said the report.

The impact of climate-related disasters are intensified by ethnic and political discriminations, according to the report, which cites  armed conflict and lack of humanitarian access in Somalia as major contributing  factors  to worsening conditions caused by the drought and famine.

People are forced to cross borders when Extreme Weather Events flood their habitat, or destroy their crops, said the report.

“Individuals leave for another country for a variety of reasons, but in many cases the driving factor is related to the loss and deterioration of livelihood,” said representative from UNU.

 

3.7 Million Somalis in Urgent Need of Humanitarian Aid

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,202 Days Left 

[November 26, 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,202 Days Left to the most Fateful Day in Human History
• Symbolic countdown to the ‘worst day’ in human history began on May 15, 2011 ...

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Global Disasters/ Significant Events

Somalia: Humanitarian Disaster

More than a million Somali refugees are currently hosted in Kenya, Yemen, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Tanzania and Uganda, and about 1.36 million others internally displaced, settled mainly in the South-Central region, UNHCR reported.

‘Somalia is the most affected country within the Horn of Africa by the ongoing drought, widely regarded as the worst in 60 years. Consecutive seasonal rain failures have led to sky-rocketing food prices, in a country already devastated by two decades of civil war,’ said the report.

• Somali people are facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today.
• Somalia is generating the third highest number of refugees in the world, after Afghanistan and Iraq.
• One in three Somalis is in urgent need of humanitarian help.
• One in every three children living in the South-Central region is malnourished.
• More than 66,000 Somalis have sought refuge in neighboring countries so far this year.

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

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• Mega Disasters
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GLOBAL WARNING

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
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