East Africa Crisis

Sanjit Das

Sanjit Das travelled to the vast refugee camp complex of Dadaab in eastern Kenya where some 400,000 people have sought refuge from war and hunger in neighbouring Somalia during the worst drought in 60 years~~On 20 July 2011, the United Nations officially declared famine in parts of Southern Somalia and extended the geographical reach of the famine to much of Somalia over the coming weeks. The poor harvest and continuing instability in the country, which has been without an effective government since the early 1990s, has brought tens of thousands of people surging across the border with Kenya and Ethiopia, two countries that regularly face their own problems in providing for their populations.~~Since the beginning of August, close to a million people have fled Somalia, seeking shelter, food and security in older or newly established refugee camps along the borders with neighbouring countries.~~~~

An estimated 13.5 million people are said to be affected by the shortage of food. The increased overcrowding in many of the refugee camps which are ill-equipped to deal with the thousands more that arrive every week has caused infant mortality in particular to spike to 7.4 out of every 10,000.~~The relief effort remains critically short of funds and a recently called African Union conference in Ethiopia failed to come up with the sums to make a dent in the USD 1.1 billion the UN says it will need to feed, shelter and treat the hundreds of thousands of people now permanently resident in the sprawling refugee camps of Kenya and Ethoipia.~~While rains in 2012 could alleviate the situation and bring a modicum of normality back to the Horn of Africa the situation until then remains critical and the need for international assistance, both governmental and non-governmental continues to be essential.~