IRC calls for urgent support to East Africa as famine looms

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called on donors need to provide urgent support to save lives in East Africa and not wait for famine to be declared in parts of the region where tens of millions of people are facing starvation.

Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are suffering their worst drought in 40 years, the region faces a fifth consecutive failed rainy season, and the United Nations has said it expects a famine to be declared in parts of Somalia before the end of the year.

“I would implore the international community not to be frozen waiting for the declaration,” IRC President David Miliband told a virtual media briefing on Tuesday following a visit to the region.

He said only the United States had increased its financial support for East Africa, as the crisis in Ukraine has diverted donor cash.

“Elsewhere there is the great sucking sound of money coming out of East Africa,” Miliband said.

Half of all deaths in Somalia’s last famine, in 2011, occurred before famine was declared, he added.

“In all the talk of net zero we can forget about ground zero,” said Miliband, estimating that Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya were responsible for just 1.2% of global greenhouse gas emissions while suffering massively from the effects of climate change.

According to IRC, over 55,000 refugees from Somalia have flocked into Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp in the last two months as extreme drought in Horn of African country continues.

Finance to help developing nations cope with the impact of climate change is being fiercely debated at U.N. climate talks in Egypt, where delegates are trying to increase ambition on reducing planet-warming emissions.

Read the original article on Reuters.