Refugees from Somalia in Dadaab. © CARE / Kate Holt On 3 August famine was officially declared in three additional regions of South-Central Somalia, adding even more urgency to CARE’s call for a rapid and ramped-up response from the international community.
Across Somalia, more than 3.7 million people – more than half the entire population – are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. In some areas in the south nearly half the population is malnourished, making it the highest malnutrition rate in the world.
“What worries me is that the current dry season extends to September, so what we are seeing now is not the worst of it” Wouter Schaap, assistant country director from CARE International Somalia, testified Wednesday during a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the Horn of Africa drought. “What is needed is food and/or cash assistance that allows people to buy food or water, nutritional support to malnourished children, water, sanitation and health services.”
Schaap sounded the alarm for governments and donors around the world to help boost the response to a food crisis that has gripped not only Somalia but also Kenya and Ethiopia. “The UN says $2.5 billion [USD] is needed for the humanitarian response, $1.4 billion more than what has been committed so far.”
CARE began to scale up its emergency response to the drought in the Horn of Africa at the first signs of this current crisis in early 2011. Today, CARE is helping more than one million people in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya with lifesaving food, water, nutrition and other lifesaving emergency assistance. CARE, for instance, is the lead agency providing food, water and primary education the Dadaab refugee camp, the world’s largest. CARE is working around the clock to scale up assistance to the more than 390,000 refugees there, most of them Somalis.
Schaap told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that, during the 1992 famine in Somalia, a large proportion of deaths were due to preventable diseases within a severely weakened population. “With the rainy season approaching in October and the huge numbers of IDPs [Internally Displaced People] in Somalia,” he said, “this is a major concern for humanitarian workers.”
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Longer term work
In addition to our immediate response in the face of this current food crisis CARE International emphasises the need to tackle the long-term, underlying causes of poverty. We have been present in the region for over 25 years and are helping families to break the cycle of hunger and to adapt to the changing climate and recurring droughts.
Our ongoing work in the region includes:
- Maintenance, protection and development of water points and wells.
- Working with women in Mandera, Kenya to revive traditional food preservation techniques.
- Vaccination of animals to prevent diseases breaking out as they congregate at remaining water points.
- Helping families have more consistent sources of income by supporting them in diversifying their work.
Read more stories from the East Africa Food Crisis:
Staff blog: Sabine Wilke, Emergency Media Officer in Dadaab - 12 August
Video: East Africa Crisis - CARE's response - 12 August
Slideshow: Dadaab refugee camp - 12 August
Somalia to Dadaab: a journey filled with danger - 10 August
Somalia: famine declared in three additional regions of South-Central - 5 August
Ethiopia: in a drought prevention pays - 26 July 2011
Staff Blog: Confusion and waiting in Dadaab, Kenya - 18 July 2011
Staff Blog: "The need for food assistance is increasing at alarming rate" - 16 July 2011
Urgency grows in the Horn of Africa - 15 July 2011
Slideshow: More pictures from the East Africa Food Crisis - 14 July 2011
Staff Blog: Horn of Africa Food Crisis - Dadaab refugee camp - 8 July 2011
Slideshow: East Africa Food Crisis - 8 July 2011
Horn of Africa: The most severe food crisis in the world - 1 July 2011
Reviving traditions to survice drought in Kenya - 3 June 2011
Ethiopia food shortage: The worst is yet to come - 25 May 2011
Press releases from the East Africa food Crisis:
Saving cattle can save lives in drought-stricken Africa - 29 July 2011
DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal reaches £30 million - 25 July 2011
DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal reaches £27 million - 22 July 2011
DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal reaches £20 million - 18 July 2011
DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal reaches £18 million - 18 July 2011
Violence against women doubles in giant East Africa refugee camp - 17 July 2011
DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal reaches £15 million - 14 July 2011
DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal reaches £13 million - 13 July 2011
DEC agencies prepare to scale up work in Somalia - 13 July 2011
Reported cases of sexual violence have quadrupled among refugees - 12 July 2011
Horn of Africa food crisis: CARE launches £16 million appeal - 11 July 2011
UK donations for East Africa Crisis Appeal reach £8 million - 10 July 2011
DEC aims to help prevent East Africa Crisis becoming a catastrophe - 10 July 2011
DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal reaches £6 million - 9 July 2011
Aid delivered in East Africa as DEC Appeals broadcast in UK - 8 July 2011
Africa’s newest country in grip of food crisis - 8 July 2011
DEC announces East Africa Crisis Appeal - 7 July 2011
Drought in Kenya: “Situation of refugees is grave” - 4 July 2011
Horn of Africa: CARE calls for more attention to severe food insecurity - 19 May 2011
