Famine in East Africa due to drought and food prices

from Red Dragon FM

The direct link below also has some video, that I couldn't embed here. Another report on how the rising food prices are hitting the poorest regions of the world. - Kale

Millions of East Africans are at risk of starvation due to rocketing food prices, Oxfam has warned.

Spiralling costs combined with successive droughts, violent conflict and endemic poverty have left up to 13 million in the region in urgent need of aid.

Oxfam has called for immediate action and increased donor support to avert the coming crisis, noting that a UN appeal for emergency assistance for Somalia has received only 37 per cent of funding needed.

Food costs have soared in recent months, with the cost of imported rice in Somalia rising by 350 per cent since the beginning of last year.

Areas of Ethiopia have seen the price of wheat more than double over a six-month period.

It is estimated that in those two east African nations alone there are an estimated 7.2 million people in need of emergency assistance.

In Turkana, northern Kenya, an Oxfam survey suggests that a quarter of children are suffering from acute malnutrition.

Oxfam's Rob McNeil, who has just returned from the region, said: "This is a catastrophe in the making. We have time to act before it becomes a reality.

"The cost of food has escalated by up to 500 per cent in some places, leaving people who have suffered drought after drought in utter destitution.

"Some of the roads we travelled on were littered with dead livestock.

"People are increasingly becoming desperate. I saw people in one village reduced to pounding the food pellets intended for their animals into porridge to feed their families."

Link to full article. May expire in future.