Worst drought in decades ravages Ethiopia

According to the United Nations, the drought The worst happened in Horn of Africa for decades are pushing 20 million people here to starvation, destroying long-standing ways of life and leaving many children severely malnourished.

April is considered one of the wettest months of the year in this region. However, the air in Hargududo village was hot and dry, dusty and barren.

Many livestock belonging to 200 semi-nomadic livestock families in the village have died.

Those who had “300 goats before the drought now have only 50 to 60 left. For some, none of them have survived,” Hussein Habil, 52, a resident of the village of Hargududo, told AFP. .

The worst drought situation is happening all over southern Ethiopia and neighboring Kenya and Somalia.

Hungry for Ethiopia, the world’s focus is largely on the humanitarian crisis in the North caused by the war between Government troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which has left 9 million people in need of food aid. urgent.

However, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that as many as 6.5 million people in Ethiopia, more than 6% of the population, are severely food insecure. important because of the drought.

The lack of rain caused the drought, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 1.5 million livestock, about two-thirds of which were in the Somali region, OCHA said, indicating “how alarming the situation has become.” any”.

The herds of nomadic or semi-nomadic groups in this arid region provided their food and income as well as savings.

The number of livestock that have survived has fallen dramatically, while their values ​​have also plummeted, reducing the purchasing power of increasingly vulnerable households, OCHA warned.

An entire community is falling apart because of the loss of livestock, threatening the way herdsmen live. Villagers are forced to leave their homes to find work in the city, families are torn apart, children are abandoned as their parents focus on trying to save their pets, which are essential to sustaining their lives. .

In East Africa, the frequency of droughts has doubled from every six years to three times since 2005, according to the latest report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). United Nations.

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