Drought conditions
The UN and a group of major charity agencies said this week that the crisis is deepening due to El Niño, which in that part of the world is dramatically worsening existing drought conditions. (In some parts of Africa El Niño is causing increased rainfall.)
The areas heavily affected by drought and experiencing food shortages are in southern and eastern Africa. Already the UN and the charity agencies say that conditions there, exacerbated by El Niño, are destroying crops and driving up the cost of what food is being produced.
Officials say there are already over 30 million people in the region who are starving and the concern is another 20 million will likewise be suffering severe food shortages by Christmas; they say their existing supplies will begin to run out in July.
Staggering numbers
The UN is concerned that the world seems to be be unconcerned about the plight of these people.
“The collective impact of the El Niño phenomenon has created one of the world’s biggest disasters for millions of people, yet this crisis is receiving little attention,” the UN humanitarian chief, Stephen O’Brien, said last week.
“The numbers are staggering,” he added. “One million children in eastern and southern Africa alone are severely acutely malnourished, and across southern Africa 32 million people need assistance.”
O’Brien said that those figures are “likely to increase.”
The UN is concerned that the war in Syria and the subsequent refugee crisis has become the focus of the world’s aid efforts and that Africa could be left without adequate help.
