from MARIA MACHARIA in Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya Bureau
NAIROBI, (CAJ News) – FAMILIES facing the worst global hunger crisis in decades are resorting to desperate means to survive.
These include drinking from cattle troughs, eating rotten meat and fighting off wild animals for food.
This is according to Save the Children, which has announced an urgent injection of US$28,5 million to some countries gripped by the hunger crisis.
Figures show that the number of people going hungry daily has doubled to 276 million from 135 million in the past two years.
This is now up to 750 000 people who are facing famine conditions in five countries as drought collides with conflict and COVID-19.
“The worst global food crisis in decades is putting millions of children’s lives on the line,” said Gabriella Waaijman, Save the Children’s Humanitarian Director.
The envoy lamented the conflicts, climate change, COVID-19 and the cost of inflating food prices due to the conflict in Ukraine.
Waaijman warned that a further 49 million people could soon follow unless they receive immediate support.
“Failure to act now will prove catastrophic and could cost thousands of lives,” Waaijman said.
In parts of northern Kenya, the only water available to some families is from animal troughs, which is spreading illnesses like diarrhoea through communities, severely impacting children.
Save the Children staff in eastern Ethiopia reported increased encroachments into communities by starving wild animals, with monkeys attacking women and children they think may be carrying food or water and warthogs coming into homes.
Reports of children suffering from malnutrition in Somalia are increasing rapidly with 1,5 million children expected to be facing acute malnutrition by the end of the year.
– CAJ News