Combined impact of failed harvests and global increases in the price of food affecting millions. Says the development organization ActionAid.

With millions facing hunger and destitution, ActionAid is warning that the region is now reaching a tipping point with increasing numbers of people unable to cope. Altogether five countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti – are affected. If nothing is done, the situation could easily become catastrophic.

In Ethiopia, the government estimates that 4.6 million people need emergency food aid. Less documented is the disastrous food crisis in Kenya, with 1.2 million people already affected and numbers rising daily.

Areas which normally get two rainy seasons a year have had inadequate rain for more than 12 months. Crops have failed, livestock have been dying.

The drought arrived at the same time as the global increase in the prices of food, fuel and fertiliser. Poor people are going hungry because they can neither produce nor buy enough food. In Kenya the price of staple foods such as maize has increased by a half in less than a year.

In the northern Rift Valley, ActionAid found that most men were away searching for water and pasture for cattle, whilst women and children struggled to survive on poisonous wild fruit called loma. It takes a day to pick enough berries for one meal, plus a day’s drying and a day cooking before they are edible.

ActionAid’s head of emergencies, Roger Yates explained that whilst rain has fallen in recent weeks, in many places it has been too little or too late to ensure a harvest later this year. There has also been an explosion in army worm populations, decimating crops that had been salvaged.

Roger Yates said:
- People will need emergency food aid well into 2009. Women and children are suffering most from malnutrition and many are now only surviving because of supplementary food rations. Small holders and pastoralists must be helped to get back on their feet as soon as possible. Dams and water tanks need to be repaired, water trucked in and seeds and veterinary medicines supplied to ensure no more crops or livestock are lost.

Many agencies, including ActionAid, are already delivering aid, but to save lives and livelihoods much more is needed during the coming months.