The children stroll among the carcasses of animals that have died of hunger and weariness, a brutal depiction of the drought that is endangering millions in the Horn of Africa.
Herders and others in a delicate region traversed by herders and others attempting to keep their animals, and themselves, alive, have raised the alarm about the newest climatic shock in Somalia, Kenya, and now Ethiopia.
People in Ethiopia’s Somali area have witnessed the failure of three consecutive rainy seasons. Droughts come and go, but Zaynab Wali, a resident, told a UN children’s agency visiting team that she and her seven children had never seen anything like this.
During the last drought five years ago, the government supplied food and fodder, she claimed. “We don’t have enough food for our family this time,” she says.
By mid-March, UNICEF expects more than 6 million Ethiopians to require urgent humanitarian assistance. In neighboring Somalia, the Somali NGO Consortium said in a separate statement that more than 7 million people want immediate assistance, asking foreign donors to provide considerably more.
According to the collaboration, this could be the worst drought in the region in 40 years.
“We’ve only been in the long dry season for a month, and I’ve already lost 25 goats and sheep,” Hafsa Bedel told UNICEF in Ethiopia’s Somali region. “In addition, I lost four camels.” There isn’t any grass.” She claims there isn’t enough food for her own family, which includes her six children.
UNICEF estimates that over 150,000 Ethiopian youngsters have dropped out of school to help with fetching scarce water and other duties.
One young boy helped a donkey that had gotten too feeble to move on its own but was still useful for carrying cargo.
