Drought, displacement, and conflict have all taken their toll on Ethiopia’s east and south-eastern regions, with about 185,000 children now estimated to be suffering from the most deadly form of malnutrition, according to Save the Children.
Over a million people in the Somali, Oromia, SNNP, and South-West regions require immediate nutrition assistance due to a prolonged drought, disruption of health services due to instability, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lack of funding.
Extreme malnutrition is expected to worsen in the coming months as food prices continue to rise due to the depreciation of the Ethiopian birr and the war in Ukraine, and pastoral families’ livestock continues to be devalued as one of the worst droughts in history decimates their herds in the Horn of Africa.
Malnutrition rates have risen by 64 percent in the Somali region of Eastern Ethiopia, one of the worst-affected by the drought, in the last year, with a 43 percent increase between January and April 2022 alone[i]. In the same three months, there were nearly 50,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition, the most lethal form of malnutrition in children.
Severe acute malnutrition is a life-threatening condition that necessitates immediate medical attention. It also weakens children’s immune systems, making any additional medical complications or infections more likely to be fatal.
Save the Children staff in the Somali region’s Dawa zone have observed that much of the pastoral nomadic community is ‘on the verge of starvation.’ From September 2021 to January 2022, admission rates for malnutrition treatment at Save the Children nutrition centers increased by more than 320 percent[ii]. Many children are only fed one meal per day, according to their parents.
Farming communities in the Shabelle zone of Somalia, another area hard hit by drought and hunger, have reported unusual animal behavior, including monkeys attacking children and livestock out of hunger.
Ahmed*, a 40-year-old Ethiopian father of seven, lives in the Somali region. Due to the drought, Ahmed lost his livestock and had to flee his village with his children in search of food and water. Ahmed expressed his thoughts as follows:
“I do not know how to feed my children. The rain failed. The grass withered. My sheep and goats died, along with hundreds and thousands of animals from our village. We packed our meagre possessions on the donkey cart and set out at midnight.”
Prolonged drought continues to wreak havoc on lives and livelihoods in Ethiopia’s south and east, affecting an estimated 8.1 million people. Nearly 30 million people, or a quarter of the population, are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance across the country, including 12 million children.
Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, as well as the rest of the Horn of Africa, are experiencing severe drought as a result of the climate crisis. In the three countries, more than 23 million people are suffering from extreme hunger, with 5.8 million children suffering from acute malnutrition.
Save the Children’s Country Director in Ethiopia, Xavier Joubert, said:
“Children — especially small children — are bearing the brunt of a harrowing and multifaceted crisis in Ethiopia. A prolonged, expanding, and debilitating drought is grinding away at their resilience, already worn down by a gruelling conflict and two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Sadly, in 2022, the crisis in Ethiopia grew in complexity and scale. In the south and the east, prolonged drought is devastating lives and livelihoods; in the north, millions of displaced families barely have access to food, health services, livelihoods; and in the southwest, a hidden conflict is displacing hundreds of thousands.”
“Families who have fled drought or conflict have left with very little, some only with their children and clothes on their backs. Though some families are returning home, they find their houses, hospitals, and schools damaged or destroyed, and their livelihoods lost.”
Save the Children is pleading with donors to provide new funds to meet the needs of Ethiopian children and their families. The child rights organization was one of the first to respond to the conflict in the north, and it has response plans in place across the country.
Save the Children teams in Somalia and Oromia are assisting thousands of drought-affected families, but more funding is urgently needed to scale up activities to meet the growing humanitarian needs.
Save the Children has been working in Ethiopia for over 60 years, and was one of the first organizations to respond to the conflict in Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions, while also providing humanitarian aid to the Oromia and Somali regions.
Health and nutrition, as well as life-saving water and sanitation assistance, protection services, education support, and cash and in-kind distributions to the most vulnerable children and their families, are all important aspects of the organization’s work.
APO Group distributed this on behalf of Save the Children.