By Sally Foster-Fulton & Nadeem Baqir

SOMETIMES words really cut through the noise and stop you in your tracks: “We cannot accept mass hunger and starvation in the 21st century.” Those are the words tweeted by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. It is a reminder that across the world crises are landing on crises. Climate change, Covid-19, conflict and soaring prices are colliding, leaving too many people without enough food or water to survive. How can this happen in 2022?

East Africa, often referred to as the Horn of Africa, is facing its worst drought in 40 years, impacting the lives of nearly 20 million people. As the climate crisis deals the planet another blow, four failed rainy seasons mean crops can’t grow and livestock are dying in their millions. People, on a massive scale, are facing starvation, with women and children hardest hit and many children showing visible signs of malnutrition.

The Scottish Government has recognised the severity of the situation, unfolding 5,000 miles away, by releasing £250,000 of funding from its Humanitarian Emergency Fund for vital emergency assistance in Somalia and Ethiopia. As respected international development organisations already working alongside local communities in these countries, Christian Aid and Islamic Relief will use the Scottish Government funds to implement urgent humanitarian assistance over the next three months.

 

For Christian Aid, which has worked in Ethiopia for 30 years, the money will be used in South Omo, southern Ethiopia, to give cash assistance to buy food essentials for more than 600 families who have been identified as being extremely vulnerable. In addition, the capacity of health and community outreach workers will be strengthened, to ensure the most vulnerable can access health services. This means helping them with transport too, as for some the nearest clinic is a four-hour walk away, sometimes longer.

Islamic Relief has worked in neighbouring Somalia for 15 years and is already scaling up work in response to the current crisis, particularly in the south and central parts of the country that are the worst affected and teetering on the edge of famine. The Scottish Government funding will improve water access for 450 households using water trucking to relieve the water shortage and will improve hygiene and sanitation. This will increase the availability of clean water for people in internally displaced camps. The project will also provide emergency hygiene kits.

Despite the deteriorating situation it feels as though the drought is unfolding in silence. Just 23 per cent of the British public in a poll commissioned by Christian Aid said they were aware of the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, compared to 92 per cent who are aware of the conflict in Ukraine.

While the response to humanitarian needs in Ukraine has been remarkable, we must also now live up to our commitments and act in that same spirit for the Horn of Africa. We are grateful to the Scottish Government for recognising the urgency and responding but the whole world needs to pull together, and fast, to give hope to our global neighbours.

Sally Foster-Fulton is Head of Christian Aid Scotland. Nadeem Baqir is Scotland Fundraising Manager for Islamic Relief.

To support Christian Aid’s East Africa Hunger Crisis Appeal visit: caid.org.uk/eastafrica. To support Islamic Relief’s emergency appeal for East Africa visit:https://www.islamic-relief.org.uk/global-hunger-crisis-appeal/