La sécheresse asphyxie peu à peu le Kenya
La sécheresse qui sévit au Kenya est l'une des plus dures depuis au moins dix ans selon l'ONU. Le président Mwai Kibaki a déclaré il y a quelques mois que 10 millions de personnes souffraient de famine.
Une sécheresse qui a des conséquences sur la nourriture, mais également l'approvisionnement en eau et en électricité. Le pays est soumis à un rationnement très strict depuis début août, et si la saison des pluies ne débute pas bientôt, une vraie catastrophe est à prévoir, dans ce pays qui fait normalement figure de leader économique de la région.
Des champs de maïs totalement desséchés s'étendent à perte de vue dans les régions les plus fertiles du pays, comme la vallée du rift ou le Mont Kenya. Depuis un an, après quatre saisons de pluies ratées, la population est véritablement à genou, y compris dans les zones urbaines.
Selon le programme alimentaire mondial, 3,8 millions de personnes ont besoin d'une aide d'urgence, or, les fonds manquent particulièrement cette année à l'organisme de l'ONU.
La sécheresse a également entraîné un rationnement drastique en eau et en électricité. Le pays dépend en effet à 70 % de l'hydroélectricité, et depuis début juillet, plusieurs barrages vitaux ont dû être fermés.
Les parcs nationaux qui attirent des millions de touristes chaque année sont aussi touchés de plein fouet. Les lions, les éléphants ont connu un taux de mortalité très élevé par rapport à d'autres années.
Enfin, les conflits autour des ressources naturelles, vols de bétail entre communautés armées jusqu'aux dents, dans le nord-est du pays se sont multipliés provoquant plusieurs dizaines de morts depuis le début de l'année.
SOURCE :
http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/afrique/le-kenya-confronte-a-une-rude-secheresse-142801
Kenya Wildlife, People Hurt by Major Drought
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/photogalleries/kenya-animals-drought-pictures/
Death toll rises as drought worsens
The drought and famine affecting millions of people in Kenya continues to worsen and is taking lives of people and livestock.
The crisis has also led to inter-ethnic violence over scarce water and pasture among some pastoral communities. Last Tuesday, at least 30 people were massacred in a confrontation between the Pokot and Samburu in the northern Diocese of Maralal. Several other people, including children, were seriously wounded and are hospitalized.
FOR PICTURES, CHECK THIS PDF FILE :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/13/1811927/15%20SEPTEMBER%202009.pdf
The government is buying livestock from herding communities but some of the animals are too weak to make the long journey to the Kenya Meat Commission slaughterhouses near Nairobi.
A Catholic missionary working in Maralal appealed for food aid from the government and humanitarian organizations to feed famine-stricken people in the arid area.
Yarumal Missionary Fr Vitner Vidal Marting, of Barsaloi Parish, told CISA that two boys had died of hunger in one of his sub-parishes.
Fr Marting said the situation is desperate and insecurity has increased because of the shortages. “As we speak, people are walking long distances begging for food and water in parishes,” he said.
Barsaloi Parish is trying to give food to pregnant women, children and the poor. “Even what we give is not enough and our food reserves are nearly empty.”
He expressed sadness that the parish is sometimes forced to send hungry people away empty-handed. People and animals are competing for the same water points.
“Migration of people to search for food, water and pasture for their animals is also causing a lot of conflicts among the Samburu, Pokot and Turkana communities,” Fr Marting said.
The people get little help from the government, which gave only 12 bags of maize three weeks ago.
The UN World Food Programme which had promised to give food every week has not done so and people are waiting.
SOURCE :
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=14854
Two million Kenyan children in urgent need of emergency food
Save the Children warns today that two million Kenyan children under the age of five are now in urgent need of emergency food aid as the hunger crisis in the country worsens.
Young children are being hit hardest by the lack of food, which has left 10 million people in need of urgent assistance. Children are most vulnerable to the effects of hunger, which leave them weak and at greater risk of life-threatening diseases. The drought has destroyed crops, killed livestock and made access to clean water extremely difficult. Families are now facing a desperate struggle to find enough nutritious food to meet their children's needs.
The numbers of severely malnourished children arriving at the aid agency's emergency feeding centres in North East Kenya have risen dramatically over the last month, with a 25 per cent increase of children arriving for emergency treatment since July.
Save the Children is also warning that conditions in Kenya are set to deteriorate further as the arrival of seasonal El Nino rains is predicted to bring flooding and leave another million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
Hannah Reichardt, a Save the Children emergency worker who has just returned from Kenya, said: "Kenya is at the height of an acute crisis and children are suffering the impact more than anyone. We urgently need to get more food into the region as once the rains arrive the area will be cut off and our job will get even more difficult. Children are in danger and world leaders and international donors must act now if we are to stop thousands of unnecessary deaths."
Save the Children UK is appealing for urgent funds to support our life-saving work in Kenya. To donate to the Kenya Emergency Appeal please visit www.savethechildren.org.uk or call 020 7012 6400.
SOURCE :
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SODA-7VZPJW?OpenDocument
Kenya Red Cross in emergency aid appeal for $8 million for starving victims
The Kenyan Red Cross on Friday made an emergency appeal for close to 600 million shillings ($8 million) to assist 1.6 Kenyans facing starvation.
Speaking in Nairobi, Red Cross Secretary-General, Abbas Gullet said that the funds will be used to purchase medicine and food for the affected Kenyans most of whom are school children.
Prior to the emergency appeal, KRCS was included in the Horn of Africa appeal. Unfortunately, the HOA appeal was poorly funded.
On Tuesday, the government made an appeal for over 20 billion shillings ($266 million) to alleviate the biting famine in the country.
10 million Kenyans are currently facing starvation following failure of rains for two successive seasons.
SOURCE :
http://www.apanews.net/apa.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=107111
http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=59940
Millions go hungry as Kenya drought wipes out cows
About four million Kenyans need food aid as the devastating drought sweeping across Kenya kills cattle en mass. Farmers in the worst –affected north of the east African country have lost more than 150,000 livestock, which has also led to a 40 per cent drop in maize production, the prim minister said. Pictures of hundreds of cow carcasses being tipped into a mass grave near Nairobi highlight the sheer scale of the disaster.
In an effort to rescue the situation the government last month announced a £4.1m plan to buy weak animals from farmers for £65 each. The animals were to be driven by truck to the Kenya meat commission depot in Athi River, a town near Nairobi, where they would be slaughtered and the meat sold to recoup costs. But many of the trucks taking the cows the hundreds of miles there did not have enough food or water onboard and large numbers arrived dead. Of those that did survive, many died soon after because of a lack of food and water in the holding bay. Kenya this week appealed to the international community to help it with emergency funds to prevent starvation."Let's appreciate the seriousness of the crisis and support where we can," Prime Minister Raila Odinga said at a key meeting in Nairobi, co-chaired by the World Bank. The situation was "extremely grave, " he said as at least 10 million Kenyans were facing hunger.
The crisis is being worsened by high food prices, caused by poor harvests. But poor planning has also left food stores lacking. In Kenya's markets, food prices have soared, as the poor harvests have led to a shortage of staple foods like white maize. And because of the shortage, prices are likely to climb higher, despite the fact that on the world market prices are much lower than last year. In some of the markets across Kenya the maize price has doubled over the past year. During the recent school holidays many schools that serve lunches in term time stayed open so that the schoolchildren could at least get one meal a day. There is also a serious water shortage, with some neighbourhoods in Nairobi going without for weeks at a time.
Even the country’s famous elephants are dying as rivers dry up and fields shrivel in game reserves. TV footage of elephant bones under the baking sun is another sign of how widespread the drought is. Nobody knows how many people have died because of it but the United Nations World Food program said 3.8 million Kenyans are at risk and need emergency food aid.
SOURCE :
http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/kenyadrought.htm
Funding shortage may force UN agency to reduce food aid to Kenyans
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today that a shortage of donations will soon force it to reduce monthly rations to millions of Kenyans in need of urgent assistance due to a combination of drought and high food prices.
“The funding shortfall is so severe that we will have to start reducing the size of rations early next month – the hardship people are facing is going from bad to worse,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.
WFP is currently distributing 2.6 million drought-affected Kenyans with food aid and hopes to increase that number by 1.2 million.
In parts of central Kenya, 50 per cent of shallow wells, boreholes and other water sources have dried up, and people walk up to 30 kilometres in search of water, according to the agency.
“Drought has left farmers with empty fields and the carcasses of dead cattle litter the land in some of the worst affected areas,” said Ms. Sheeran.
“Malnutrition rates are rising beyond emergency levels. And staple food prices – 100 per cent above normal – are beyond the reach of the hungriest people who are trying to feed their families.”
The agency said it has only received 8 per cent – $24 million – of the $301 million needed to feed 3.8 million people over the next six months.
SOURCE :
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32106&Cr=&Cr1=
WFP says may cut Kenya funding
“Life has never been easy for the poor in Kenya, but right now conditions are more desperate than they have been for a decade,” said WFP Kenya
SOURCE :
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/660376/-/uncbj7/-/