IV 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 239 
Supporting ongoing efforts by the United States Government, in concert 
with the United Nations and the donor community, to respond to drought 
and food insecurity in the Horn of Africa. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 3, 2017 
Mr. ENGEL (for himself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Ms. BASS, and Mr. ELLI-
SON) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Supporting ongoing efforts by the United States Government, 
in concert with the United Nations and the donor com-
munity, to respond to drought and food insecurity in 
the Horn of Africa. 
Whereas the worst famine in 20 years occurred in Somalia 
between October 2010 and April 2012, caused by severe 
drought, failed harvests, a spike in food prices, and per-
vasive insecurity, which impeded the delivery of food aid; 
Whereas the famine resulted in the deaths of at least 
260,000 Somalis and Somali refugees in Southern Ethi-
opia and Northern Kenya, including at least 133,000 
children under the age of five; 
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•HRES 239 IH 
Whereas early warning of drought and famine conditions was 
accurate and timely across the region, but funding for 
the humanitarian response came too late to mitigate the 
worst effects of the drought, including mass displacement 
into neighboring countries, starvation, and death; 
Whereas in 2011 alone, the threat of starvation contributed 
to the influx of over 110,000 Somali refugees into Ethi-
opia, 100,000 Somali refugees into Kenya, and thousands 
more into Djibouti; 
Whereas a shortage of rainfall over the course of the past two 
years has again exacerbated drought conditions, signifi-
cantly increasing vulnerability and food insecurity across 
the Horn of Africa region, leaving more than 14,000,000 
people facing severe food insecurity and in need of hu-
manitarian assistance as of early 2017; 
Whereas in February 2017, the Famine Early Warning Sys-
tems Network (FEWS NET) and the Food Security and 
Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSNAU) warned of 
a significant deterioration in food security and an in-
creased risk of famine in the Horn of Africa in the com-
ing months if the April–June rains are as poor as ex-
pected; 
Whereas the effects of drought place the heaviest burden on 
women and girls, whose coping strategies put them at in-
creased risk of violence and cause them to forego edu-
cational opportunities; 
Whereas in Ethiopia, drought conditions have developed in 
recent months in at least 15 zones of Oromia, Somali, 
and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples re-
gions, and 5,600,000 people are projected to require hu-
manitarian assistance in the coming months; 
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•HRES 239 IH 
Whereas Kenya has experienced two consecutive seasons of 
poor rains, causing 12 counties to experience drought 
conditions and contributing to acute food insecurity for 
2,600,000 people; 
Whereas in Somalia, nearly 6,200,000 people are currently in 
need of humanitarian assistance, and more than 
2,900,000 people are facing crisis or emergency levels of 
acute food insecurity, including nearly a million children 
under the age of five; 
Whereas according to the United Nations High Commissioner 
for Refugees (UNHCR), Somalia is the fourth largest 
source of refugees in the world, after Afghanistan, Syria, 
and South Sudan; 
Whereas more than 1,000,000 people are already internally 
displaced within Somalia, many living in dire and unsafe 
informal displacement camps where they face a range of 
serious risks, including sexual violence and violent forced 
evictions; 
Whereas the anticipated scale of population displacement 
from Somalia due to pervasive conflict and the threat of 
starvation will increase refugee flows throughout the re-
gion and into Europe; 
Whereas in 2016, the Government of Kenya revoked prima 
facie refugee status for Somalis and disbanded the De-
partment of Refugee Affairs, leaving thousands of newly 
arrived Somalis unregistered and without assistance; 
Whereas the Government of Kenya has announced plans to 
repatriate 261,000 Somali refugees to areas of Somalia 
affected by drought and famine conditions, as well as the 
persistent threat of violence from Al-Shabaab; and 
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•HRES 239 IH 
Whereas if timely, sufficient funding for a robust humani-
tarian response is not received by the end of April 2017, 
the humanitarian consequences of this drought, including 
the loss of life and reverberating effects in the region, 
will exceed those of the 2011 famine: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) commends the timely response of the De-
partment of State and the United States Agency for 
International Development (USAID) to early warn-
ing signals of drought in the Horn of Africa, and for 
providing substantial assistance for the humani-
tarian response in fiscal year 2016 and to date in 
fiscal year 2017; 
(2) commends USAID’s quick deployment of a 
Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) be-
tween March and November 2016, in response to the 
previous drought in northeastern and central Ethi-
opia, which, by working with international partners, 
resulted in the number of people requiring humani-
tarian assistance declining from approximately 
10,200,000 in late 2015 to a projected 5,600,000 by 
the end of 2017; 
(3) commends the Somali diaspora in the Horn 
of Africa, the United States, Canada, Australia, and 
Europe, for spearheading the response to humani-
tarian needs in Somalia, and encourages financial 
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•HRES 239 IH 
institutions to explore means to facilitate the flow of 
charitable donations and remittances to populations 
in need; 
(4) commends the work of United Nations 
agencies and international, national, and local non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) in providing 
sustained life-saving assistance to vulnerable popu-
lations across the Horn of Africa, leading to im-
provements in malnutrition rates since 2011; 
(5) commends USAID for its work to date to 
mitigate the impact of environmental shocks to pas-
toralist communities across the Horn of Africa, and 
calls on the Department of State and USAID to 
continue providing robust, long-term development 
supporting programs that build resilience, protect 
livelihoods, and strengthen global food security 
through programs such as USAID’s Office of Food 
for Peace and Bureau for Food Security, as well as 
programs to provide drought relief and emergency 
food assistance implemented by the World Food Pro-
gram (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization of 
the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Inter-
national Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 
and nongovernmental organizations, including faith- 
based and non-faith-based organizations; 
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•HRES 239 IH 
(6) calls on the President to appoint high-level 
officials able to engage the international community 
in joining the United States to respond to this crisis, 
including an Administrator for USAID, a Director 
for the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, an As-
sistant USAID Administrator for Africa, and an As-
sistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; 
(7) urges the Government of Kenya to publicly 
declare that the Dadaab refugee complex will remain 
open, respect prima facie status for new arrivals 
from Somalia, and work with the Office of the 
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 
Kenya to restart the registration of refugees, includ-
ing from Somalia, at their points of entry, re-estab-
lish fair, transparent, and effective asylum proce-
dures across the country, and put in place robust 
border protection monitoring to track humanitarian 
indicators inside Somalia and assess the needs of 
new arrivals; and 
(8) calls on the United States Government and 
the international community, including international, 
national, and local NGOs, to continue life-saving as-
sistance and development activities in order to allevi-
ate drought and food insecurity in the region to 
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•HRES 239 IH 
avert the catastrophic consequences of drought in 
the Horn of Africa. 
Æ 
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