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This may seem like a story that you have heard time and time again! Parts of Africa are starving. There are children and mothers who are malnourished and facing death by starvation. This article takes a look at the worst drought in the horn of Africa for the past 60 years. The simple question can’t be ignored anymore and simply has to be asked. Why does this keep on happening in the horn of Africa and in Africa? At the largest refugee camp in the world, Dadaab, there is a sea of people peppered everywhere in a camp that was built to hold 90,000 refugees but now holds over four times that limit. At Dadaab refugee camp, there are groups of men and women waiting to be registered at the screening centers that have been set up. There are clinics where there are people who are malnourished and children who are receiving vaccinations. But what is the world food organization doing about this crisis? People come all the way from Somalia to get food aid from the camps. Some walk for more that 20 or 30 days to Dadaab to receive the rations that would last them and their families a few days. The number of people who go to Dadaab for food each day is about 1200 people. In the month of March, the camp received over 10,000 refugees, but in the month of June, Dadaab received over 30,000 refugees. There is clearly a crisis on the Kenya-Somalia border and the rest of the world still hasn’t woken up to it. The drought in 2007/2009, involved 22 million people at its peak. Now, in 2011, there is a crisis that involves over 10 million people, according to Oxfam.
So, to answer the question, why is it still happening in Africa? Firstly, the weather and climate are the first factors at play here. The horn of Africa and the surrounding regions have been undergoing climate changes for decades. Secondly, there are conflicts going on in Somalia that have resulted in more refugees. Thirdly, there are high food and fuel prices in these regions of Africa. These factors combined are what have brought about the current drought in the horn of Africa. There needs to be some sort of political stability in these regions of Africa. With political stability in place, local people can start farming and producing food and crops for themselves. It is unfortunate that this isn’t the case at the moment. There is a harsh climate of political instability in the regions of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya and this has lead to poor decision making and poor rural developments. People in most of these regions don’t earn enough money to feed themselves and their families. Aid agencies have swept in to tame the drought problem, but unfortunately have been faced with other problems such as conflicts in the region, therefore making it even more difficult for Aid agencies such as Oxfam to work.
The story is pretty much the same on the western coasts of Africa. In Niger, there are over 7 million starving people. In Chad, there are over 2 million starving people. Again, the reasons for the drought on this side of the continent are very similar to that on the eastern side of the continent. There have been losses of livestock and continuous surges in food prices. Northern Cameroon and Mali are also suffering from a drought crisis. The Sahel region in Africa is one of the poorest in the world. It is underdeveloped and it is an arid land that stretches from Senegal to Sudan. Jane Cocking, Oxfam's humanitarian director, told The Associated Press that 12 million people face "a fight for survival". Oxfam hopes to raise $80 million, its largest ever appeal for Africa.
The U.N. has said the Horn of Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts since the early 1950s.
(http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/07/07/7031757-worst-drought-in-60-years-12-million-africans-face-fight-for-survival)
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