Horn of Africa: WHO requests funds to prevent deaths from hunger and disease

The sum of growing food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition in the Horn of Africa has generated a complex health emergency in which health risks increase and access to health care is reduced every day, warned this Tuesday the World Health Organization (WHO).

In a press conference from Dakar, Senegal, the WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response, Ibrahima Soce Fall, indicated that more than 80 million people are food insecure that had not been observed in decades in the Horn of Africa.

Fall warned that of that number of people, there are millions who are in high risk of starvation.

To assist this population, he explained, the UN agency has expanded its operations in seven countries: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

Caring for malnourished and sick children

The main goal right now is to ensure that severely malnourished and ill children receive the care they need, which means have medical supplies and equipment vital.

The WHO stressed the urgency of spot outbreaks early of diseases such as measles, cholera and meningitis.

Among other tasks, the UN agency works to identify gaps in access to medical services in order, in coordination with its humanitarian partners, to reach the most marginalized population.

These activities require resources, so WHO called on the international donor community to gather $123.7 million to cover his work until December of this year.

Meanwhile, the Organization has disbursed 16.5 million from the emergency fund.

“The WHO must act now to prevent people from dying of hunger and disease, but can’t do it aloneFall stressed.

© UNICEF/Oloo

A mother with her child in her arms walks past the carcasses of cattle killed by severe drought in Marsabit, Kenya.

Do not underfund certain crises and overfund others

According to the head of Emergency Response, the impact of the war in Ukraine in food markets has caused a significant increase in the number of people who need help, thus exceeding WHO budget projections.

In this context, Fall stressed the importance of do not allocate excess resources to some crises, leaving others aside and without sufficient funds.

In the same tenor and with respect to the monkey poxFall lamented that, as happened before with Zika, it took cases to reach developed countries before attention was paid to the disease.

“Must be put an end to this type of discrimination and research must be increased to help the most vulnerable countries and populations to respond to the disease”, he pointed out.

He stated that the situation in the Horn of Africa is the worst recorded in 70 yearsdetailing that only in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia there are seven million children with acute malnutrition.

In Somalia, moreover, vaccination coverage against measles and DTP3 falls short of the 95% target, while several countries have reported outbreaks of measles and cholera.

© UNICEF/Zerihun Sewunet

Displaced families affected by drought, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia.

Up to 20 million people could die

“Malnutrition and disease form a vicious circle. The inaction is not an optionif we do not act, up to 20 million people could die,” Fall emphasized.

For her part, the WHO manager for Incidents, Drought and Food Insecurity Crisis in the Horn of Africa added her voice to Fall’s to draw attention to the worsening humanitarian situation in the region.

From Nairobi, Kenya, Sophie Maes warned that between 37 and 50 million people they suffer from a degree of malnutrition in which they are depleting their reserves to survive.

Maes said that, unlike in previous crises, prevention of food insecurity, including blanket supplementary feeding, was underfunded because these they were channeled into other crises.

As an example of the seriousness of the situation, he cited the cuts what he should have done World Food Program to food rations and the number of beneficiaries due to scarcity of resources.

As if that were not enough, Maes continued, four consecutive seasons of failed rains and forecasts of drier areas in some areas, while severe flooding in others, exacerbate health hazards.

Lack of clean water, increased risk of gender violence and local conflictare other factors that threaten the physical and mental health of the population in the Horn of Africa.