By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

ISIOLO, Kenya – According to UNICEF, the United Nations Children Fund, the number of children in the Horn of Africa that are starving is rising at an alarming rate.

Five million children under the age of five are suffering from malnutrition in six countries, including Kenya.  The latest UNICEF estimates said that these children are suffering as a result of the food shortage due to a prolonged drought and of the Somali conflict.

According to a statement made by UNICEF, in the past five months the number of children that need emergency food assistance has risen nearly one million in number.

“Unicef estimates that for the whole of 2009 some 500,000 children under five will suffer from life-threatening severe malnutrition.  For countries such as Kenya it is the fourth consecutive failed rainy season in a row.  The dry spell already led to enormous losses in livestock, increases in food prices and severe water shortages,” said the statement.

Food aid and humanitarian assistance are estimated to be given to 24 million people in Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and parts of Uganda, according to the UN.  This number is up from 20 million earlier this year.

The area is anticipating that rains from El Nino will cause flooding in parts of the region which will contribute to more water-borne illnesses and crop failures.  The disappearance of vegetation is expected to worsen the effects of flooding.

“More than 23 million people in pastoral, agricultural and sub-urban communities, as well as internally displaced people and refugees in the region, are reeling from the impact of water and food shortages, pasture scarcity, conflict and insecurity,” said Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Human Affairs John Holmes.  “While we cannot prevent these climatic shocks, we certainly can mitigate their disastrous effects through forward planning and the right funding from the donor community.”

The humanitarian community is undertaking flood contingency planning but due to financial constraints and humanitarian access issues, the OCHA has encouraged the international community to “increase their support” and to draw lessons from the past and be prepared and proactive in response to an emergency.

For more information, please see:

Relief Web – Horn of Africa Alert – October 2009 – 16 October 2009

UNICEF – Food and Nutrition Insecurity Deepens in the Horn of Africa as Heavy Rains Predicted – 16 October 2009

UN News Centre – Stricken by Drought, the Horn of Africa Readies for Expected Flooding – 16 October 2009

Daily Nation – 5m Children in Africa Starving – 15 October 2009