At least 12 million reported to be in need of assistance

At least 12 million people in several countries in the Horn of Africa are experiencing food insecurity, mainly due to poor rains, and will require food and non-food assistance this year, according to the latest Greater Horn of Africa food security bulletin. Those affected, said the December-January bulletin issued this week included at least 7 million people in Ethiopia, 2 million in Tanzania, 1.2 million in Kenya, and 1.2 million in Eritrea. Also affected were pastoralists in Somalia, as well as returnees, internally displaced people and refugees scattered across the region. "Successive seasons of poor rainfall in 2003 and prior years are compromising food security in several countries in the Greater Horn of Africa," the bulletin said. "In Ethiopia, timely delivery of relief interventions will be important to save lives and protect livelihoods." In Kenya, it said, lack of sufficient reserve stocks would limit the capacity of the government to continue distributing relief food items beyond March, and donor interventions would be needed. Likewise, in Somalia, the pastoralists in the Sool plateau region were seriously affected. "Successive seasons of rainfall failure continue to imperil the food security of [the] pastoralists. Global acute malnutrition is rising to alarming levels," the bulletin said. "Emerging conflict between Somaliland and Puntland is aggravating food insecurity of households in the drought-affected northern Somalia." Poor rainfall had also affected vegetation conditions in various parts of Kenya, eastern and northwestern Tanzania, the Sool region of Somalia, the northern Red Sea area of Eritrea, parts of southeastern Ethiopia and southern Sudan. This had caused abnormal but localised livestock movement. Apart from poor rainfall, the bulletin said, insecurity in some countries of the region, such as Sudan, where clashes were continuing in the western Darfur region, had led to increased displacement of people, thereby disrupting humanitarian activities. The bulletin, however, noted that favourable rainfall in 2003 was likely to improve food security this year in southern Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda and the eastern and highland areas of Kenya. The food security bulletin is published by the Famine Early warning Systems Network, the Regional Center for Mapping Resources for Development, the Desert Locust Control Organisation, the Livestock Early Warning Systems, the United States Geological Survey, the World Food Programme and the United States Agency for International Development.