Scale up strategies to mitigate effects of drought, says Save the Children

Save the Children has called on various stakeholders including the government to put up measures to curb climate change so as to mitigate the terrors being caused by drought.

The NGO has suggested that water sources should be increased so that they can be utilized during dry spells and especially at this time when the East African region is experiencing the worst drought ever.

According to Save the Children a total of 17.1 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are facing food insecurity and are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

Speaking to journalists at Ole Sereni Hotel in Nairobi on Wednesday, Duncan Harvey Country Director Kenya and Madagscar said, “Turkana, Marsabit and Mandera are the worst hit areas in Kenya. This is an extreme crisis that can worsen in the coming months. This is the worst drought in 25 years in Turkana.”

Save the Children CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt emphasized the severity of the drought in Northern Kenya adding that this is already threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions in this region.

“Children are as always in these situations most at risk. During my conversation with the County Government of Turkana, the governor Koli Nanok says that his county has been worst hit. 

Communities are without food and water. Death of livestock has been witnessed and families have no ways of providing for themselves,” Ms. Thorning-Schmidt remarked.

Ms. Thorning-Schmidt who is also former Prime Minister Denmark commented that NGOs have worked with the Government to assess the situation on the ground and estimated that around 350,000 Kenyan children are acutely malnourished.

“This is a particularly high number for Kenya. Those children need help and they need help now. These children we are talking about are hungry, they are only getting a meal a day at best. Some do not get any meal. This means their immunity is extremely weak making them vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, cholera, measles and pneumonia,” she said with a sense of urgency.

Somalia drought situation

Hassan Noor Saadi CEO Save the Children Somalia confirmed that the drought being experienced on Somalian soil is on a higher scale as compared to the one in Kenya.

“There are places in Somalia where it has not rained in the past 2 years. That has led in a crisis in middle parts of Somalia. In 2011 there was a big famine in this county that caused 260,000 deaths. The country is facing a similar situation at the moment,” he noted.

Mr. Noor added that currently 6.2 million are being affected by this drought.

“Out of this figure there are 3.2 million people who are in crisis and emergency situations. 1.4 million children are suffering from malnutrition. Assistance should be provided soon to them as it is now a matter of life and death now,” he said.

He added that half of the country’s population depends on pastoralism as a means of livelihood and in the last few months around 50 per cent -90 per cent of livestock has been lost.

“Capability of this community to cope with the crisis has been taken away. The situation gets further complicated when we get into some of the conflict affected areas in particular South and Central Somalia. There are 2 million people living in those two regions and they the ones tasked with having most difficulty accessing humanitarian aid,” Mr. Noor noted.

He said that this has led to large displacements and in only 2017 almost 750,000 people have been displaced and these people have migrated to big cities like Mogadishu.

“This exposes additional challenges to humanitarian community in terms of reaching out to these people. Estimates show that almost every day 7,000 people are leaving their houses to these big cities with the hope they will get some assistance,” Mr. Noor remarked.

Saving those affected by hunger

Mr. Noor has shown optimism that there has been favourable response from donors in Somalia.

“However the situation is still critical .At this point in time we have 45,000 cases of cholera and 1,000 have died majority being children. The health system in Somalia is very poor and we can see the gains achieved from humanitarian aid decline,” he cautioned.

Mr. Harvey said that they have spent time in Turkana in the last few days talking to mothers, fathers and community leaders where the community members expressed that they have been worst hit by the effects if drought.

“This is not just another drought season expected in the Northern Arid and Semi-arid land but this is a severe event where we need to be stepping up our efforts in order to save lives of children,” he stated.

“We are very worried that if we do not scale up to these children now we will see more of them dying from diseases that could have been prevented,” Ms. Thorning-Schmidt concluded

Kenya enters deal with Seychelles to boost tourism

Tourism CS, Najib Balala gifts  Seychelles Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation and Marine, Maurice Loustau-Lalanne.

Kenya and the Indian Ocean country of Seychelles have reached an agreement to boost tourism and promote trade amongst African nations.

The Government of Kenya, through the Ministry of Tourism and National Carrier, Kenya Airways KQ has signed a Memorandum of Understanding MOU with the Seychelles Tourism Board STB and this was confirm through a hand over ceremony that took place in Nairobi.

The agreement embodies a framework for collaboration between the airline and the Seychelles Tourism Board which is guided by the strategic value of tourism to both organizations.

The MOU further seeks to promote sustainable development in Africa.

 “Statistics indicate an increase in arrivals from both destinations to each other’s countries. There is therefore a solid ground to further grow and sustain tourism in both destinations,” said Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala during the handover.

Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, Seychelles’ Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine said that his dream is to work together with Kenya to come up with strategies to boost tourism.

“This will include having incentive travels and holiday packages. We are excited by the possibilities offered by Kenya Airways and the supported accorded to us by The Government of Kenya, “he continued.

KQ CEO, Mbuvi Ngunze assured that through signing of the MOU , KQ will seek to not only boost the frequency of flights into Seychelles , but also avail regular cargo freight flights on the request of the Seychelles government based on demand for products from Kenya.

The tourism deal is not the only deal the two countries have struck.

During bilateral talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday at State House, Nairobi visiting Seychelles President Danny Faure entered a wide reaching agreement that will see the two countries expand their ties in trade and security.

The agreement will see Kenya export more human capital and agricultural products to Seychelles. 

President Faure said it would be mutually beneficial for his country to import beef and poultry from Kenya rather than countries like Brazil.

Seychelles is expected to assist in transformation of Kenya’s maritime sector especially the fishing industry.

Both presidents announced that Seychelles will support Kenya to make the port of Mombasa to develop the capacity to act as a fish trans-shipment port.

Hundreds of thousands of children in East Africa risk dying of hunger

The lives of over 700,000 children in South Sudan, Somalia and Kenya are in danger bearing the fact that drought has become a national crisis in these nations. 

According to humanitarian organization World Vision the lives of these children are now hanging in the balance because they suffer from acute malnutrition.

“Children are already dying in South Sudan and Somalia, many more are on the brink in northern Kenya and parts of Ethiopia. We cannot wait any longer, “warns Christopher Hoffman, World Vision’s Director of Humanitarian Response in East Africa.

Mr. Hoffman said that the affected countries must get lessons from the famine of 2011 that killed about 260,000 people.

“We must act now and act fast to save lives. The situation in Somalia is deteriorating quickly as well, with acute levels of food insecurity increasing each day ,” he continued.

The United Nations UN has described the current hunger crisis affecting South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria as the largest humanitarian crisis since 1945. 

Northern Bahr El Gazhel in South Sudan is sliding into catastrophic levels of hunger, with it fast approaching famine levels, while malnutrition is spiking in Turkana where nearly 55 per cent of children under 5 years are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. 

Stephen O’Brien, UN Under Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council recently that “Without collective and coordinated efforts people will simply starve to death and many more will suffer and die from disease.” 

During his recent visit to Kenya, UN Secretary General Antonio Gueterres said that drought  had  had a devastating impact in the economy and in the lives of the Somalis. 

“And in these tragic circumstances, there has been rapid spread of diarrhoea and cholera killing people, making people suffer enormously, with a clear need of support from the international community,” Mr. Gueterres stated.

The Government has since declared the current drought affecting 23 arid and semi-arid counties and pockets of other areas a national disaster.

President Kenyatta during the announcement called on all stakeholders to support the Government by upscaling drought mitigation programmes.

The President also called on the local and international partners to come in and support the Government’s efforts to contain the situation which has not only affected human beings and livestock but also the wild animals.

“Support from our partners would complement Government efforts in mitigating the effects of drought,” said the President.