Horn of Africa: Swift aid for drought-affected farmers and herders needed to avoid a hunger crisis

In a region reeling from locust invasions and COVID-19, a third-consecutive year of poor rains poses a major threat to food security.

Over $138 million in urgent funding is needed to assist 1.5 million vulnerable people in rural communities in the Horn of Africa whose fields and pastures have been hard hit by an extended drought, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said today, as it released a comprehensive response plan calling for a range support for agriculture in the region.

In a region already prone to food insecurity associated with weather extremes, natural resource limitations and conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020-21 locust invasion have stretched the coping capacities of rural communities to the limit, undermining agricultural productivity.

Now a third season of drought driven by La Niña is raising concerns that a large-scale hunger crisis could break out if the region’s food producing rural communities do not receive adequate assistance timed to the necessities of upcoming agricultural seasons.