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In 2011, Somalia experienced a devastating famine that killed over a quarter of a million people – half of them children under the age of five. The international community failed to act in time, despite repeated warnings of an impending crisis. Yet, just over a decade later, and despite various alarms over the past two years, world leaders are once again responding too late and with too little to avert catastrophic hunger in East Africa.

Over a decade since Somalia experienced a devastating famine that killed over a quarter of a million people, another famine is looming in East Africa. Despite various warnings and alarms over the past two years, we are once again responding too late and with too little to avert the crisis. The humanitarian system must evolve in order to enable and fully fund anticipatory action.

The Horn, East and Central Africa are facing a profoundly alarming hunger crisis. More than 66 million people are in need of humanitarian aid as climate extremes have caused widespread food and water shortages. Oxfam is on the ground responding but we urgently need your help to save more lives.

Battered by cyclones and ravaged by extreme drought, poor communities in the Horn of Africa and Mozambique have found themselves on the front line of a climate crisis they did little to create.

Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent, but it is the world’s most vulnerable people who are hit the hardest. In the south of Niger, Oxfam works on sustainable income generating activities to make the population more resilient to climate change and food insecurity.

There is growing scientific analysis suggesting that the impacts of current and recent droughts in East Africa are likely to have been aggravated by climate change. Without global efforts to reduce emissions and to help the world’s poorest people cope with the effects of climate change, this crisis will continue to repeat itself.

For many people in East Africa, the current drought is the worst in living memory. Nomadic pastoralists are among the hardest hit. Their livestock is completely wiped out, meaning they have no means to feed themselves. In eastern Somaliland, Oxfam witnessed entire communities on the move, desperately searching for water and pasture.

A devastating drought has hit Ethiopia, putting millions of people at risk of hunger and disease. We are helping over 160,000 people in three areas of the by trucking in water, repairing boreholes and wells, and giving out animal feed.  

We are providing clean water to people in Ethiopia stricken by drought, and helping them manage their livestock. It's vital the international community commits funding now to stop a major disaster.

Millions of poor and vulnerable people face hunger and poverty this year and next because of record global temperatures, droughts and erratic rains in 2014 and 2015, compounded by the development of possibly the most powerful El Niño on record.