The East Africa region is facing an unprecedented triple food security threat caused by the combined effects of recent severe floods, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the upsurge of desert locusts, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) warned in a statement obtained Thursday.
According to FAO, even before these current challenges, Eastern Africa was considered among the most food-insecure regions of the world, with nearly 28 million people in food insecurity crisis in 2019, or 20 percent of the total severely food insecure population across the world. It also stressed that an estimated 9 million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, including 2 million facing severe acute malnutrition.
The FAO, in a joint position statement issued together with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) late Tuesday, stressed that “urgent action is required to prevent a major food crisis in Eastern Africa.”
It emphasized that there is an increased risk of below-average rains during the upcoming October to December season, which could further threaten food security and livelihoods across the region.
The IGAD region is also one of the world’s leading sources and hosts of internally displaced persons and refugees and asylum seekers who, due to limited livelihood opportunities and degraded coping mechanisms, are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition, according to the UN agency.
Between March and May 2020, heavy rainfall across the region resulted in widespread flooding and landslides across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. According to IGAD, some 2.4 million people were affected, including 700,000 who were displaced and over 500 who were killed.
This is in addition to previous flooding between October and December 2019, which affected 3.4 million people across the region, according to FAO.
Forecasts of above-average rainfall between June and September 2020, particularly across western Ethiopia, eastern South Sudan, Sudan, western Kenya, northern and central Uganda increases the risk of additional flooding during the next several months.
Favorable weather and vegetation conditions across the Eastern African region in late 2019 to mid-2020 contributed to the worst desert locust upsurge in over 25 years, affecting all IGAD countries with varying levels of destruction to crops and pastureland, it said.
CU/abj/APA