Emergency Response

Sept. 1, 2009

Prolonged drought is ravaging much of East Africa, the UN reports, and unless the international community acts promptly, a humanitarian catastrophe looms. Around 11 million people are in serious danger in Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti, the UN estimates. Reports of the situation, which is beginning to approach famine, have begun making headline news, including a feature report * on CBC TV's The National broadcast Wednesday, August 26. The United Church is closely monitoring the situation and considering support.

The UN special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Kjell Bondevik, says a disaster can be avoided if funding comes "in a matter of weeks...not months." The UN's World Food Programme * (WFP), leading the aid effort, says it has only a third of what it needs to close the shortfall. Donors had committed just US $186 million of the US $574 million needed, the WFP says.

"I'm afraid that we will go from a crisis to a disaster to a catastrophe if help is not provided in time," Bondevik said. His comments were echoed by Oxfam UK, which said the response so far from rich donor countries had been "dwarfed by the immediate need." The crisis is so bad in some parts of northern Kenya that families are being forced to eat insects, wild berries, and squirrels to stay alive, Oxfam has found.

Over the past two years, the United Church has provided funds for drought and other forms of relief in most of the affected countries through ACT International*, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank*, or directly to partners in the region.

For more information contact

• Gary Kenny
  Emergency Response Desk
  Tel.: 1-800-268-3781 or 416-231-7680, ext. 4051
  E-mail: Gary Kenny