A severely malnourished child at a feeding centre in Oromiya Region, Ethiopia.
Photo: UNICEF/HQ08-0452/Grum Tegene
Children and families in the Horn of Africa are experiencing severe shortages of food and water, due to factors including drought and rising food prices, which have been made dramatically worse by climate change.
Weak rainfalls across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and parts of Uganda have led to crops failing and cattle dying. It is estimated that 5 million children now face massive food shortages and that 500,000 children under five are at risk of life-threatening severe malnutrition this year.
During the upcoming rainy season flooding is likely in parts of this region, which may cause more crop failures and an increase in diseases spread by water such as cholera and typhoid. During recent months, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have registered more than 65,000 cases of cholera or acute watery diarrhoea, more than the last two years.
Flooding may also hit schools, which will have a negative impact on young people's right to an education throughout the region.
UNICEF's response
With help from UNICEF, Ethiopia has been able to reach more severely malnourished children. The number of sites providing treatment for malnutrition has risen from less than 500 in 2007 to over 3,200.
In Djibouti, 60 per cent of severely malnourished children are now being reached, while nearly 5,000 children have been treated in Uganda.
In Somalia, UNICEF and its partners are providing more than 900,000 people with access to safe drinking water. And in Kenya, UNICEF has been supporting how the country prepares effectively for cholera outbreaks.
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