The United Nations has issued a warning over possible mass starvation in four countries; Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen due to devastating droughts and conflict.
About 20 million people live in hard-hit areas where crops have failed and malnutrition rates are increasing, particularly among young children, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.
In South Sudan alone – where the UN declared famine in some parts of the country in February – “a further 1 million people are now on the brink of famine,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said.
“We are raising our alarm level further by today warning that the risk of mass deaths from starvation among populations in the Horn of Africa, Yemen and Nigeria is growing,” Edwards told a news briefing.
“This really is an absolutely critical situation that is rapidly unfolding across a large swathe of Africa from west to east,” he said.
In South Sudan, persistent violence has destroyed crops and forces hundreds of thousands to flee to neighbouring countries. In Somalia, Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab has waged a war against the government, killing many people and disrupting farming around the country. The same goes for north-eastern Nigeria where Boko Haram has caused havoc for years.
According to the UNHCR, more people are on the run within their countries.
A preventable humanitarian catastrophe, possibly worse than that of 2011 when 260,000 people died of famine in the Horn of Africa, half of them children, “is fast becoming an inevitability”, Edwards said.
