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STORY: WFP / HORN OF AFRICA DROUGHT
TRT: 03:35
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: AUGUST 2022, SOMALIA / JULY 2022, KENYA / JUNE 2022, ETHIOPIA
16 AUGUST 2022, HUDUR, SOMALIA
1. Aerial shots, drought-stricken land
2. Various shots, IDP camp, displaced people cooking, children being tested for malnutrition
6 AUGUST 2022, GALKAYO, SOMALIA
3. Various shots, woman receiving food assistance
17 AUGUST 2022, BAARDEERE, SOMALIA
4. Med shot, Beasley speaking with displaced mothers, Horseed nutrition centre
5. SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Climate change has impacted the entire world. And where I stand here in the Horn of Africa is absolutely no difference. We are now looking at 20 million people marching to starvation here in the Horn of Africa, infect where I stand in Somalia 7 million people, and that’s twice as many as there was just 6 months ago’, why? Conflict, extremist groups coupled with the driest season that we have seen in decades, four five rainy seasons have just disappeared, and in the past four decades the driest season we have ever seen in a long time, people are loosing hope, but the World Food Programme, if we get the support, the money we need, we can save lives and we can bring hope.”
12 JULY 2022, CHALABI DESERT, KENYA
6. Aerial shot, of camels crossing drought stricken Chalbi desert
7. Various shots, dogs picking at the carcasses of dead animals
12 JULY 2022, MALIBOT, KENYA
8. Various shots, people collecting water,
9. Various shots, WFP food distribution for families affected by the drought with sorghum, beans, and cooking oil.
13 JULY 2022, KALACHA, KENYA
10. Various shots, nutrition testing
11. SOUNDBITE, (Borana) Kame Guyo, WFP beneficiary:
“We don’t have money for basic needs, and sometimes we are forced to sell frail drought-stricken livestock for meager amounts.”
12. Various shots, child eating WFP provided fortified peanut paste as a treatment for her malnutrition
15 JUNE 2022, GODE, ETHIOPIA
13. Various shots, WFP Drought Response Project
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is expanding assistance in the Horn of Africa as levels of hunger soar after back-to-back droughts, and the threat of famine looms.
Since the start of the year, nine million more people have slipped into severe food insecurity across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, leaving 22 million people struggling to find enough food to eat.
WFP Executive Director David Beasley on Thursday wrapped up a visit to drought-ravaged Somalia, where over seven million people – close to half the population – are acutely food insecure and 213,000 are already facing famine-like conditions.
Beasley visited the southern city of Baardheere and met families – including malnourished children and their mothers - forced to leave their homes and travel long distances through conflict-wracked areas in search of humanitarian assistance.
WFP is tripling the number of people reached with life-saving food assistance in the Baardheere area, which hosts tens of thousands of people driven from their homes by drought and conflict.
Across the Horn of Africa, the drought is expected to continue in the coming months, with a fifth poor rainy season forecast later this year.
WFP has focused available funds, including critical emergency funding from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, on scaling up life-saving assistance in areas worst hit by the drought.
WFP is targeting 8.5 million people across the Horn of Africa, up from 6.3 million at the start of the year.
In the three drought-affected countries, WFP is providing food and cash assistance to families and distributing fortified foods to women and young children to treat spiraling rates of malnutrition and prevent more people among some of the most vulnerable communities from slipping closer to famine.
WFP cash grants and insurance schemes are also helping families to buy food to keep livestock alive or to compensate them when their animals die.
At the start of the year, WFP warned that 13 million people in the Horn of Africa were facing acute food insecurity due to the drought.
By mid-year, with the fourth consecutive failure of rains, that number increased to 20 million.
Now, the number is projected to rise again to at least 22 million by September.
This number will continue to climb, and the severity of hunger will deepen if the next rainy season (October to December) fails and the most vulnerable people do not receive humanitarian relief.
Needs will remain high into 2023, and famine is now a serious risk, particularly in Somalia.
Across the Horn, livestock are dying and there are acute shortages of water and food.
So far, 1.1 million people have been forced from their homes by the drought, ending up in crowded camps where the humanitarian community is struggling to keep pace with the demand for food, shelter, and healthcare.
During the 2016/17 drought in the Horn of Africa, catastrophe was avoided through early action.
Humanitarian assistance was scaled up before there was widespread hunger, saving lives and averting a devastating famine.
WFP is doing everything possible to support those most in need, but with no end in sight to this drought, some US$418 million is urgently needed over the next six months to meet these increasing needs.
In Ethiopia, WFP aims to provide food and cash relief assistance to 3.3 million people in the drought-hit Somali Region (59% of the population) but is currently only able to reach 2.4 million due to funding shortages.
WFP’s malnutrition treatment programmes are targeting almost 850,000 women and children in drought-affected areas.
WFP’s first humanitarian shipment of grain from Ukraine is on route to Ethiopia, where it will go towards feeding 1.53 million people for a month.
In Kenya, WFP is rapidly scaling up to reach 535,000 drought-affected people by the end of August – up from 108,000 reached in the first half of 2022.
WFP is also expanding its malnutrition treatment programmes to reach 210,000 malnourished children and 105,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in 15 drought-affected counties – up from 8 counties.
In Somalia, WFP is continuing to scale up emergency food support to reach 4.5 million people in the coming months.
In July, WFP reached a record 3.7 million people with life-saving food assistance, the highest ever reached in a single month, and a significant increase from 1.7 million people supported in April.
WFP has also nearly doubled targets for its malnutrition treatment programme, aiming to provide 444,000 young children and mothers with nutrition support.
