Meanwhile, UNICEF’s situation report on Kenya, released on 6 September, said that the government of Kenya had declared a national disaster due to drought in 19 districts. An estimated 3.3 million people were at risk from starvation, while more than one million children and 430,000 pregnant and lactating women were in need of supplemental food, health care and clean water.
“Kenya is facing a dramatic humanitarian crisis,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said on 21 June after returning from a five-nation tour of the Horn of Africa. “I was told in several small villages in the north of the country that this drought appears to be worse than anything in the 80s or 90s. Moreover, unlike some parts of Ethiopia and Somalia, northern Kenya has not seen any rain at all in months,” she said.
[To read a complete copy of the report see: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/]
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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