Drought could lead to humanitarian catastrophe, warns UN envoy

The United Nations special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa, Kjell Magne Bondevik, has warned that many people in the drought-hit region could die unless aid donors released funds quickly to help those in urgent need of food and water.

An estimated 11 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania are facing food shortages because of a drought that has ravaged the region. Pre-famine conditions have been reported in some of the affected areas.

"There is a real threat that many people could die as a consequence of the drought if we do not have necessary help in place in time," Bondevik said on Thursday after touring drought-ravaged Kajiado district of Kenya, where the fields are littered with carcases of dead livestock.

Seventy 70 percent of the district's 530,000 people were dependent on food aid, which needed to be rapidly increased, said Kajiado district commissioner, Ernest Munyi.

"I have seen with my own eyes the terrible effect this drought is having on pastoralists, farmers and their families," said Bondevik. "Within these communities, children are often the most vulnerable. The loss of livestock threatens the ability of families to cope.

"We hope to avoid a big catastrophe; it is possible, it is up to the international community and of course up to the national and local authorities," Bondevik, told a news conference in Nairobi, the Kenya capital, during his first visit to the region since he was appointed earlier this month.

He called for a linkage between emergency relief and long-term development programmes to improve people's drought coping capacity.

"We need to increase both understanding and awareness of the current situation, its longer-term implications and underlying causes to better tailor our response. We must promote a better integrated and holistic response that involves water, health, food and all other critical needs. Resources are needed for each one of them," Bondevik added.

Bondevik met a livestock keeper, Moses Yiare, who said he had lost a total of 300 cattle, goats and sheep as a result of the drought. He complained that the situation in Kajiado would not have deteriorated to the current level if herders had ready markets for their livestock and the means to preserve hay whenever drought struck.

George Otieno, a government drought management officer, said 19.3 percent of children under the age of five in the district were malnourished, mainly because there was no milk available in their homes.

Thousands of people had migrated to other districts or neighbouring Tanzania in search of pasture and water. The migration had forced many children to move out of school, he said.

Kajiado district has suffered total crop failure becuase rainfall has either been inadequate or has totally failed during the past five consecutive seasons, according to Otieno.

Forty percent of the cattle, 25-30 percent of sheep and 15-20 percent of goats had died as result of lack of pasture and water since December. Weakened animals had become vulnerable to tickborne diseases and trypanosomiasis, he added.

Earlier this month, the Kenyan government appealed for US $245 million to help an estimated 3.5 million people, including 500,000 children who are in need of humanitarian assistance in 25 drought-hit districts.