Some 5.4 million people will suffer from “high levels of acute food insecurity” between March and June this year in Kenya due to severe drought in several parts of the country, the International Rescue Committee warned today ( IRC).
Among these people, some “1.2 million are probably in the emergency phase”, specifies the humanitarian NGO in a press release.
This projection represents a 43% increase in the number of people facing high levels of food insecurity compared to the same period last year.
Although needs are growing, Kenya’s drought response plans remain “underfunded”, limiting the ability of humanitarian organisations, the IRC said.
“Weather forecasts suggest a reasonable chance that the next rains from March to May will again underperform. If this were to happen, it would be an unprecedented sixth bad season, with catastrophic humanitarian impacts”, underlined the director of the NGO in Kenya. Mohammad El Montassir.
“Some 970,000 children aged 6-59 months and 142,000 pregnant or breastfeeding mothers in Kenya are likely to be acutely malnourished by 2023 and will need treatment,” Montassir said.
This state of malnutrition of these vulnerable populations has compromised their immunity and increased the risk of exposure to diseases.
Similarly, more than 2.4 million head of cattle, on which pastoral families depend for their food and livelihoods, died due to lack of rain.
Last Friday, the Kenyan government admitted in a report that “the food security situation in the country has deteriorated, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas, after a fifth consecutive season of poor rains.”
The Ministry of East African Community, Arid and Semi-Arid Lands and Regional Development estimated that “six million people in 32 counties – out of 47 counties – are affected by the prolonged drought” and are classified according to different levels of food insecurity. .
According to the executive, the population facing acute food insecurity and, therefore, in need of humanitarian assistance currently stands at 4.4 million.
Kenya is among the countries in the Horn of Africa affected by the severe drought – the worst in forty years – which is currently affecting the region, where millions of people are facing food insecurity and malnutrition.