famine

Kenya's Prime Minister will be the first world leader to sign a ground-breaking Charter that would make deadly food crises like the one gripping East Africa a thing of the past.

This week, Oxfam Ambassador Actress Scarlett Johansson visited Kenya to see the devastating impact of the drought in East Africa. More than 13 million people are at risk because of a severe drought that has hit parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. In Somalia, the crisis has escalated to a famine.

The world must put people’s lives before politics if is to stand any chance of aiding people suffering from the famine in Somalia, a group of 20 aid agencies said today in an open letter. While aid is getting through in many areas, it is not at the scale needed.

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.

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.

International agency Oxfam is airlifting 47 tonnes of vital water supply and hygiene materials to Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, as the aid community scales up its effort to bring relief to the drought-stricken country.

Oxfam says governments and donors must act with greater urgency in the face of a deteriorating crisis and rising needs in East Africa. Donors must move beyond promises and immediately turn money pledged into action on the ground, as more than half a million people are at risk of starvation.

A group of global artists, activists and business leaders have signed a joint letter urging world leaders to step up their response to the famine in the Horn of Africa. They call on them to act “without reservation, prevarication or equivocation” when they meet at an emergency summit in Rome today.

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.

Several rich governments are guilty of wilful neglect as the aid effort to avert catastrophe in East Africa limps along due to an $800 million shortfall.