A severe drought is affecting parts of eastern, northern, and southern Ethiopia, putting an estimated four million people in danger of food shortages. In the pastoralist Afar region, both the spring “Sugum” rains and the summer “Karma” rains have failed. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced last week that “at least one third of the 1.2 million people living in the Afar Region, of northern Ethiopia, are in dire need of immediate food assistance through December.” Both drinking water and grazing pastures for livestock are in short supply, leading many herders to migrate to other areas. Livestock are central to the economy of the Afar people, providing subsistence milk products and a source of wealth. The WFP appealed to the international donor community for increased food aid, warning that current levels of assistance would not be enough to avert widespread hunger and starvation. For more information contact Wagdi Othman, Information Officer, WFP Ethiopia, at Wagdi.Othman@wfp.org.
