As the end of 2022 draws near, the Horn of Africa is experiencing the longest and most severe drought on record, threatening millions of people with starvation.
As the end of 2022 draws near, the Horn of Africa is experiencing the longest and most severe drought on record, threatening millions of people with starvation. Relentless drought and high food prices have undercut many people’s ability to grow crops, raise livestock, and buy food.
On November 7, 2022, a consortium of 16 international organizations issued a statement about the deteriorating food security crisis in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. According to the statement, large-scale loss of food and income over the past two years, due primarily to drought, has led to food insecurity for 21 million people across the region. More than 3 million people face emergency levels of food insecurity, which means they regularly go a day or more without eating and have sold their possessions to earn income for survival. In Somalia, the drought has forced over 1.3 million people to abandon their farms and migrate to displacement sites.
A combination of human-induced warming, Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures, and La Niña have contributed to four dry rainy seasons in a row, which is unprecedented in the 70-year precipitation record analyzed by researchers at the Climate Hazards Center (CHC) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Now a fifth season of poor rainfall has arrived.
Read more at: NASA Earth Observatory
Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens
