By Sarah Garrod
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The charity warns that a persistent five-year drought, deepened by climate change, is causing destitution and starvation in some of the world's poorest areas.
Oxfam has today launched a £9.5 million emergency appeal to reach 750,000 people, in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda. They say the drought teamed with high food prices and violent conflict is "exacting a heavy human toll".
The campaign is being supported by Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren, who has previously traveled to Uganda with Oxfam.
She said: "I visited Uganda just six years ago, and I saw then just how precious life is. It horrifies me that the people I met then are being caught up in this new catastrophe.
"I have seen how generous the British public can be, and how their generosity can make a huge difference to families in Africa struggling against the odds. We can turn things around and help these families – but we need to act now, before it is too late.
"Five pounds could support a family to get the food, cooking oil, and soap they need to survive for five days. It can bring a family back from the brink."
Malnutrition is now above emergency levels in some areas, with cattle, a key source of food and income, dying in their hundreds of thousands, Oxfam claims.
The charity says the current drought being experienced in East Africa is the worst Kenya has experienced for a decade, and the worst humanitarian situation Somalia has experienced since 1991.
Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam's East Africa director said: "Droughts have increased from once a decade to every two or three years.
"People are surviving on two litres of water a day in some places – less water than a toilet flush. The conditions have never been so harsh or so inhospitable, and people desperately need our help to survive."
In Kenya a tenth of the population are in need of emergency aid, with food prices spiraling to 180 per cent above average.
One in six children are acutely malnourished in Somalia, and people are trekking for days to find water in the northern regions of the country. Half of the population - over 3.8 million people - are affected, Oxfam says.
Campaigners are now concerned that rains due in October could exacerbate the situation by bringing deluges.
There are genuine fears the region could be hit by floods as a result of the El Nino phenomenon, which could destroy crops and houses, and increase the spread of water-borne diseases, and even with normal rain, the harvest will not arrive until early 2010.