The vagaries of weather, vulnerable subsistence farming and herding operations and inadequate infrastructures are putting people close to famine in the Horn of Africa. Battling three years of drought and little rain during the current rainy season, an estimated 18 million people in the Horn of Africa are facing famine once again. More than 400 people, mostly children, have already died, prompting agencies to move quickly to prevent more deaths. Mike Delaney, director of humanitarian assistance for Oxfam America, says that the land in the region is so dry that wind has swept away top soil with grass seed so that with the recent lack of rain, the livestock started to die off suddenly. Some 800 children also were on supplemental feeding.
Parents take food home and bring the children back regularly for checkups.
There are adequate supplies for these programs. Food for Gode included 30 metric tons of high protein biscuits and 10 tons of therapeutic milk. Palmer concurred that aid is sufficient, with at least 25 percent more basic commodities needed. As usual, aid efforts are hampered by warfare, bridges out of commission, poor roads, inadequate ports and a lack of trucks. I guess I would distinguish it from an actual famine only because, at this point, only the most vulnerable, the children and the elderly, are dying in southern Ethiopia.