About 12 million people are at risk of hunger due to recurring droughts

About 12 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are at risk of hunger due to recurring droughts, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says, with Somalia at risk of slipping into famine for the second time in six years.

“Climate change is a real and current problem in East Africa. What were previously once in a life time droughts now come around more often. For the first time, scores of camels and donkeys which are typically hardy animals are dying off and the lives of pastoralists, which revolve around their animals have been greatly disrupted.” Nigel Tricks, Oxfam’s regional director told.

East Africa is experiencing its third year of very low rainfall, coupled with above average temperatures, which are part of a trend that began in the 1980. Seven of the last ten years have seen chronic droughts in East Africa due to poor or failed rains. People are hungry and cattle are dying due to drought which started to bite last year.

Eastern and southern Africa were hard hit in 2016 by drought exacerbated by El Nino – a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean – that wilted crops, slowed economic growth and drove food prices higher.