The United Nations says it has appealed for $166 in aid to assist about 2.6 million people that have been affected by the drought in Kenya.
The agency on Thursday said that more than 350,000 children, pregnant women and new mothers are acutely malnourished, with malnutrition rates in the country’s northern counties estimated to be above 30 percent, double the emergency threshold.
“We must act together now to avert further suffering,” said Joseph Kinyua, Kenya’s head of public service and the president’s chief of staff.
The U.N. has warned the world faces the largest humanitarian crisis since the end of World War Two, with millions facing starvation and famine.
An alliance of British aid agencies on Wednesday launched an appeal for more than 16 million people facing starvation in East Africa, including Kenya.
The other countries affected by the drought include Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.
The situation in South Sudan has however largely credited to the violence that has rocked the country for more than three years.
Eastern and southern Africa were hard hit in 2016 by drought exacerbated by El Nino – a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean – that wilted crops, slowed economic growth and drove food prices higher.
The government has allocated $100 million to the emergency response, but more money is needed to provide life-saving food, health, water and sanitation services, the U.N. said in it’s statement released on Thursday.
Eastern and southern Africa were hard hit in 2016 by drought exacerbated by El Nino – a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean – that wilted crops, slowed economic growth and drove food prices higher.
Half of Kenya is in crisis with large numbers of people on the move, particularly nomadic pastoralists in the north.
The government has allocated $100 million to the emergency response, but more money is needed to provide life-saving food, health, water and sanitation services, the U.N. said.
