The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa had left 23.4 million people acutely food insecure and 5.1 million children acutely malnourished.

It said 36.6 million people had been affected by the drought across the region, calling for “immediate and medium-to-long-term actions” to prevent and mitigate the worst impacts and reduce vulnerability and risks while building and strengthening resilience.

The drought has displaced an estimated 2.7 million people, the WFP said in its latest situation update released on Sunday evening.

Successive below-average harvests, coupled with high production and transport costs, reduced local agricultural produce and led to food price spikes, the WFP said.

It said the impacts of the 2020-2023 drought will likely persist for a long time, noting that as it has become more frequent and intense, it will take longer for the affected populations to recover fully.

The WFP said favourable rains over March-June led to better-than-normal vegetation conditions in the pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Ethiopia, northern Somalia, and parts of Kenya, compared to the end of the 2022 short rains season.

“This signifies improved availability of livestock grazing pastures/forage except in localised areas,” the UN agency said.

However, in south-central Somalia and southwest Kenya, it is said that insufficient precipitation or localised incidences of floods might impact the seasonal harvests, affecting food availability. 

(Xinhua/NAN)