UNHCR asks for 130 million to help 3.3 million people due to the drought in the Horn of Africa

28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

A spokeswoman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has requested this Tuesday 137 million dollars (almost 130 million euros) from donors to provide “vital” humanitarian aid to the nearly 3.3 million of refugees and internally displaced by the sixth wave of drought in the Horn of Africa.

As reported by a UNHCR spokeswoman, Olga Sarrado Mur, during a press conference from Geneva, thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes affected by the lack of rainfall in countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Specifically, more than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced in Ethiopia and Somalia, while more than 180,000 refugees from Somalia and South Sudan have crossed into Kenya and Ethiopia to seek assistance in the absence of rain.

UNHCR has warned that in recent weeks, almost 100,000 people have arrived in Doolo, a remote area in the Somali region of Ethiopia itself, fleeing the conflict in the Anod area, in the semi-autonomous region of Somaliland.

The Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya are overflowing and many people have had to settle outside the settlements, for which the NGO has called for “additional assistance and protection” with “urgency” in the face of drought and insecurity, which will persist in 2023.