HIGHLIGHTS
- El Niño“drought effect” likely to have a long-lasting impact as people’ resilience continues to be eroded
- Ethiopia battling worst drought in decades
- Drought, food in security and power shortages stalk southern Africa region
- Cholera, a preventable disease, kills thousands across eastern and southern Africa
- Protracted conflicts to complicate humanitarian situation
- Funding shortfalls paralyse humanitarian responses
FIGURES
- # Food insecure
Southern Africa 20 m
Eastern Africa 14 m
- # of Cholera cases in both regions 42,000
- IDPs in the Horn of Africa region (January 2016) 8.2 m
- Refugees in both regions Est 4 m
FUNDING
- CERF allocation US$64 million (January 2016)
- 2016 HRPs
South Sudan: $1.3 billion
Somalia: $0.885 million
Ethiopia: 1.4 billion
Burundi, Djibouti, Sudan HRPs being finalized
Climatic shocks to persist in the region
Reports by the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group in eastern Africa, and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), indicate that the number of food insecure people has sharply increased in several countries in the region as a result of El Niño-related drought. Over 201 million people are reportedly food insecure in eastern Africa, while another 142 million people are food insecure in southern Africa.
Food pipeline break likely in Ethiopia in May – additional funds needed
In the Horn of Africa region, the El Niño “drought effect” north of the equator, including northern parts of Sudan, Ethiopia, parts of Eritrea, Djibouti and North Somalia, has had much greater humanitarian impact than the “flooding effect” south of the equator in eastern and central parts of Uganda, isolated parts of South Sudan, coastal and western Kenya as well as the southern western parts of Ethiopia and South Central Somalia.
Ethiopia is by far the worst affected country in eastern Africa, with 10.2 million people currently in need of emergency assistance. This is in addition to the 7.9 million people receiving assistance through the Government Productive Safety Net Programme. The Humanitarian Country Team predicts 1.7 million cases of moderate acute malnutrition and 400,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition in 2016, should there be significant delays in providing emergency assistance; particularly food.
Of the US$1.4 billion requested by the 2016 Humanitarian Requirements Document for Ethiopia, $1.2 billion is for food. The overall Appeal is funded at 46 percent ($680 million). The current funding available for food aid will be exhausted by 1 May, and the risk of pipeline breaks on other sectors is deeply concerning. In addition to securing additional resources, the Government’s continuing efforts to ensure maximum fast-tracking of humanitarian supplies from the Port of Djibouti is crucial. WFP has recently also started using the Port of Berbera in Somaliland given the heavily congested port in Djibouti.
Acute water and pasture shortages have also been reported in drought-affected parts of Puntland and Somaliland in Somalia, where nearly 380,000 people are food insecure. An estimated 65 per cent of Puntland face drought conditions. Authorities in Puntland issued an appeal on 21 January 2016 to assist the over 220,000 people affected by drought. In Djibouti, which has one of the harshest climate in the world, more than 58 per cent of the rural population is food insecure.