UN, major donors to mobilise drought response for Horn of Africa in New York

GOOBJOOG NEWS|NEW YORK: Donors will today be converging in New York to mobilise funding for over 20 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity in the Horn of Africa.

The UN, Italy, Qatar US and the UK will be leading the high-level pledging event between 3 pm and 6 pm East African Time.

According to UNICEF, more than 7 million children under the age of 5 remain malnourished and in need of urgent nutrition support in the Horn of Africa while over 1.9 million children are at risk of dying from severe malnutrition.

As the region comes out of one of the worst droughts in 40 years, vulnerable communities have lost cattle, crops, and entire livelihoods over the past three years of failed rains.

According to the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, the event will discuss the underlying factors affecting the Horn of Africa and explore opportunities for practical, long-term solutions, including how to promote and finance climate adaptation.

In Somalia, over one million people were displaced by the drought and in the last two months, over 200,000 more have been uprooted from their homes by floods which have adversely the Shabelle river basin which runs from southern Ethiopian highlands through central Somalia before terminating in the Indian Ocean.