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Millions of people across East Africa – particularly, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Kenya – are facing "hunger on a massive scale" as another ongoing drought impacts the Horn of Africa.
World | Africa

Extreme drought in East Africa, 20 million lives at risk


Daksha Rangan
Digital Reporter

Friday, March 24, 2017, 12:11 PM - Millions of people across East Africa – particularly, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Kenya – are facing "hunger on a massive scale" as another ongoing drought impacts the Horn of Africa.

In honour of World Water Day on March 22, NGOs took to social media to share the video above, which shows Kenyan locals drawing water in a dry riverbed.


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"Drought in this part of the continent is not unknown and has been an increasingly frequent occurrence," The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said in a statement. "Datelines change ... but the stories of unimaginable hardship, death and deprivation, while differing in magnitude from one drought to the next, remain much the same."

The current crisis has been compared to the region's historic drought of 2011, with the United Nations saying that, climatically, the drought in 2017 is more intense and widespread than the 2010-2011 crisis. But in regard to emergency preparedness, the organization says world governments are better equipped to respond.

On March 20, the European Union announced an additional $240 million (165 million Euros) to be added to the initial drought aid fund for East Africa.


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Parts of South Sudan announced the world's first declaration of famine since 2011 in February 2017, Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Somalia's drought was declared a national disaster in late February.

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