Famine appeal launched for East Africa
Famine relief work is under pressure in East Africa
Christian Aid has issued an appeal to support its famine relief work in East Africa.
In Kenya, home to around 120,000 Friends, the government has declared a national emergency. Kenya’s Red Cross says 2.7 million people face starvation if more help is not provided.
The Kenyan government had allocated £84 million to tackle the drought that has affected people, livestock and wildlife in twenty-three of Kenya’s forty-seven counties, but says more support is needed from agencies like Christian Aid.
Famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, where 100,000 people face starvation and nearly five million urgently need food. This crisis follows more than three years of devastating conflict, which has left millions of people without a safe place to live.
The situation is also grave in Somalia and Ethiopia, where twelve million people are going hungry every day, caught up in the region’s worst drought in fifty years. In Somalia alone over 360,000 children under five are extremely malnourished.
