|
|
Horn of Africa Food Crisis Called Most Severe in World
4 July 2011
The Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa is presently experiencing the most severe food crisis in the world, according to USAID, and other organizations. The hardest hit population is in Somalia, for obvious reasons. The entire region is described not as being on the verge of a disaster, but in the middle of one, according to one NGO. In some pastoral regions, the drought is said to be the worst since 1950. In a fallacy of composition, the crisis is being blamed on drought, as opposed to the real causes: primarily, no economic development; soaring prices of fuel and, therefore, also fertilizer, and the resultant soaring prices of food, which, in Kenya, for example, is resulting in a hungry and angry citizenry. The military/political unrest in Somalia aggravates this shortage of food, or its high cost. The marginal pastoralists and agriculturalists in the region are selling off their herds and agricultural tools in a desperate effort to survive, which eliminates their future means of production and guarantees that the problem will be prolonged. Yesterday, UN World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran raised concern about nearly 10 million people facing severe food shortages in the region. She complained that resources to feed 6 million of those suffering shortages, are dwindling, and as a result, the WFP is being forced to scale back operations in Ethiopia and Somalia. In addition, because of conflict in Somalia, 10,000 people per week are fleeing to go to overcrowded camps in Kenya. The number of malnourished children, and therapeutic feeding in the camps, has tripled this year. Sheeran said that those in need of assistance are: Ethiopia, 3.2 million people Kenya, 3.5 million Somalia, 2.5 million Northeast Uganda, 600,000 Djibouti, 120,000
In Kenya, food costs are rising dramatically, leading to panic buying, and to many complaints from the population about middle-men who are price-gouging. The Kenyan government is also being hit for not relaxing protective food-import restrictions more quickly. Food rationing is being imposed, an effort to restrict the middle men. As a result of the IMF conditionalities and conditions imposed by aid givers, the government has ceded, to private millers, its role of ensuring that there are adequate supplies of grain, with disastrous results. Although the import restrictions were lifted, the soaring grain price increases have meant dropping consumption levels. Some Kenyan districts have the highest malnutrition rates ever. |
