East Africa Emergency Appeal
One million people could die – and no one is talking about it
Right now, children are starving to death in South Sudan. This is the first time famine has been declared anywhere in the world in the last six years.
This terrible famine will spread quickly without a big international response.
Please give to the urgent appeal today.
|
|
What’s happening?
East Africa is in the grip of an intense drought. Two seasons of poor rainfall have wiped out crops and killed livestock. Our partners on the ground have told us that cattle are dying and people are eating leaves to survive. Women are digging holes in the dry earth in an attempt to find water.
Extensive crop failures and record low vegetation, together with significant livestock deaths across Somalia, southern and eastern Ethiopia, and northern and coastal Kenya have put millions of people at risk of starvation.
Rivers and lakes are dry. The poorest families have sold the few possessions they own and have nothing left. Without emergency food aid, they will die.
The conflicts in South Sudan and Somalia have made the situation worse, forcing families from their homes, and leaving mothers struggling to keep their babies alive.
Who is most affected by this drought?
Children are suffering most. Their tiny bodies can’t cope without food for long. In 10 out of 24 refugee camps in Ethiopia, malnutrition has reached emergency levels.
|
|
How critical is it?
The drought is as bad as it was in 2011, when widespread famine in the Horn of Africa caused more than a quarter of a million deaths, half of them children. We’re at risk of that catastrophe repeating.
Our partners are on the ground, distributing emergency food aid and water supplies, but the scale of the crisis is truly staggering, and there’s just not enough money to meet the need.
What can you do to help?
Together, we can prevent the worst of this crisis - but only if we all play our part.
It will take a big international response. That’s why Act for Peace is working closely with our ACT Alliance partners around the world, to raise funds and coordinate our lifesaving work on the ground.
