EID Prayer in Dadab camp for Somalian refugees. Photo by Montaser Marai
The UN announced today that famine has spread to a sixth Somalian region and that upwards of 750,000 deaths will occur within the next few months without immediate and drastic increase in aid efforts.
“We can’t underestimate the scale of the crisis,” Mark Bowden, the United Nations’s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia told the New York Times. “Southern Somalia is the epicenter of the famine area in the Horn of Africa. It’s the source of most of the refugees, and we need to refocus our efforts.”
Since July, when the UN declared three regions were experiencing famine, the famine has spread throughout a third of southern Somalia, including parts of Mogadishu. Today, the UN said the entire Bay Region is impacted, an area where 60 percent of the children are severely malnourished.
Tens of thousands have died over the past few months, according to Bowden, "over half of whom are children. That translates into hundreds a day.”
In other news:
Dadaab refugees face sexual violence on camp journey
Reports filing in on women walking with children for over 30 days being attacked and raped at gunpoint. Estimates are that almost 80 percent of new arrivals at Dadaab are women and children who are traveling without a male companion. One woman, who made the journey with five grandchildren and one small cousin, told CBC's Carolyn Dunn: ""I was raped by seven men. One at a time, one at a time."
Follow the CBC Journalist tweeting live from Dadaab.
As reports continue to file out of East Africa on the disproportionate impact of the food crisis and drought on women, a report issued this week out of Pakistan Women unseen victims of resource wars linked to climate change confirms just how significant a role gender continues to play in the regions of the world most vulnerable to global warming.
According to an official report prepared by the Environment Wing, climate change could hamper the achievement of many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including those on poverty eradication, child mortality, malaria, and other diseases, and environmental sustainability. The report of the Environment Wing said like other poor countries, climate change is harder on women in Pakistan, where mothers have to stay in areas hit by drought, deforestation or crop failure.
Many destructive activities against the environment disproportionately affect them, because most women in Pakistan are dependent on primary natural resources: land, forests, and waters. In case of droughts they are immediately affected, and usually women cannot run away. Men can trek and go looking for greener pastures in other areas and sometimes in other countries.
World Risk Index
The UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn has released a World Risk Index(WRI) to assist and shape responses to disasters. The WRI takes into account natural hazards as they relate to the unique vulnerablities of individual countries and is expected to assist aid organizations in jump starting responses to disasters.
Eritrea. Next Country to face Food Crisis
The BBC reports that despite government claims of a bumper crop, evidence is mounting that 2 out of 3 Eritreans may be experiencing acute hunger. A FEWS Satellite revealed below average rainfall from June to September and each month over 900 cross the country's militarised border.
Horn of Africa Timeline
The Telegraph has compiled a detailed overview of the food crisis in East Africa, beginning in February 2011 when the UN reported that over a six month period, over 30% of the Somalian population was experiencing acute malnutrition.
Support our #48forEastAfrica campaign by donating to Oxfam America to support their work in East Africa.
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How Oxfam spends aid money in Dadaab: Short Version from Kelvin Brown on Vimeo.
1 hour ago from @OxfamEAfrica
...Running feeding programmes in Mogadishu for 3000 malnourished children arriving every week. 56K children treated so far #Somalia #famine
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11:23 PM PT: A new study assessing the availability and stability of food supplies in 196 countries has rated the food security of Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo as lowest in the world, whilst countries in the drought stricken Horn of Africa are also at ‘extreme risk’.
The Food Security Risk Index (FSRI), released by risk analysis and mapping company Maplecroft, is based on the key elements of food security as laid out by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It is calculated using 12 indicators, measuring the availability, access and stability of food supplies across all countries, as well as the nutritional and health status of populations.
Vulnerability to food insecurity
According to the FSRI, a number of critical factors have combined to intensify the current food crisis affecting countries in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia (ranked joint 1st), Eritrea (4), Ethiopia (7) and Djibouti (14).
http://reliefweb.int/...