East Africa Food Crisis

As East African leaders gather in Nairobi today to take part in a regional summit to end drought emergencies in the Horn of Africa, Oxfam says governments must take on greater responsibility and accountability in responding to the disaster.

Rising food prices and a lack of political will has affected how millions of people across the world have been breaking their fasts during the holy month of Ramadan.

Rome -- The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) held a follow-up meeting today to its 25 July Emergency Ministerial meeting examining the humanitarian crisis in East Africa.

East Africa is facing the worst food crisis of the 21st Century.

The UN announcement of famine in Somalia is both a wake-up call to the scale of this disaster, and a wake-up call to the solutions needed to limit death-from-hunger now and in the future.

The UN announcing famine in parts of Somalia, the first in the region in the 21st century, must be an urgent wake up call to the rest of the world, Oxfam said.

East Africa is facing the worst food crisis of the 21st Century. Across Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, 12 million people are in dire need of food, clean water, and basic sanitation.

Tens of thousands of Somali refugees fleeing the worsening food crisis and ongoing conflict in the Horn of Africa are being barred from a new aid camp that stands empty and unused while refugee families live in shocking conditions a few kilometers away.

While the international community has stepped up to help those impacted by mega-emergencies, such as the earthquake in Haiti or the floods in Pakistan, unfortunately, “slow-onset” humanitarian crises, such as the worsening drought in the Horn in Africa, have not received the same attention.

Oxfam spokesperson Caroline Peace said:

World Development Report:

“Women do most of the world’s work but have a minority of the world’s jobs.