Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (April 2022) – Aljazeera reports that The United Nations has warned that delayed rains could worsen an already severe drought in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, putting 20 million people at risk of hunger this year.
As long-awaited rains fail to arrive over a month into the current rainy season, the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) warned that “the number of hungry people owing to drought might soar from the currently estimated 14 million to 20 million by 2022.”
According to Afrik 21, Ethiopia’s east and south have been particularly hard hit, with approximately 7 million people in desperate need of humanitarian aid. This is a new problem for Ethiopia, which is already dealing with the disastrous situation in the north of the nation as a result of the war in Tigray.
Malnutrition rates in drought-stricken southern and southeastern Ethiopia have risen to emergency levels, according to Aljazeera, while the north of the nation has been engulfed in a 17-month conflict between government forces and Tigray rebels.
The crisis has been compounded by the fighting in Ukraine, which has led to rising food and fuel prices as well as interrupted global supply networks, WFP.
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