The United Nations has received just 21 percent of the money it needs to combat the food crisis in Africa and the Middle East.
Described as the worst humanitarian emergency since the Second World War, famine has already been declared in parts of South Sudan while Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen are set to follow. Around 20 million lives are at risk and 1.4 million children are at “imminent risk of death” from severe malnutrition.
Two months ago the secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres, warned that at least 20 million people were at risk if his aid agencies could not gather USD4.4 billion by the end of March.
So far the United Nations has received only USD984 million, a fifth of their target.
Health workers have warned that malnutrition rates are rising rapidly in Somaliland and that many children will die unless help arrives imminently.
Each one of the famine-plagued nations is unstable due to civil conflict. It is also thought that prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa region has also contributed to affecting at least 13 million people already.
International aid officials fear this year’s food emergencies will take a far bigger toll than the 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa that killed more than 260,000 people – if help does not come.
