OVER 20 million children in the Horn Africa region are facing the threat of severe hunger and disease due to a combination of climate change, conflict, and grain shortages according to a UN agency.
UNICEF said the figure of children in danger was up from an estimate it calculated in July of 10 million. According to the agency there are nearly two million children in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. And the number of young people who are vulnerable to water scarcity has doubled to nearly 24 million.
Risk
Also more than two million people have been displaced within their own countries due to the recent drought. UNICEF say this has led to a situation where an estimated 2.7 million children have dropped out of school, with an additional four million at risk.
Adding to the problems young people face when families are facing increasing stress are the possibilities of being exploited as child labourers, child marriage, and sexual violence,
UNICEF Deputy Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Lieke van de Wiel said: “While collective and accelerated efforts have mitigated some of the worst impact of what had been feared, children in the Horn of Africa are still facing the most severe drought in more than two generations.
Damage
“We need a global effort to mobilize resources urgently to reduce further devastating and irreversible damage to children in the Horn of Africa.”
Van de Wiel said UNICEF’s 2023 emergency appeal of $759 million is aimed at supporting children and their families to be able to continue their education, accessing water and sanitation, and funding child protection initiatives which it says were severely underfunded this year.
UNICEF estimates an additional $690 million is required to support long-term investments for children and their families to recover and adapt to climate change.
“As governments and people across the world prepare to welcome a New Year, we urge the international community to commit to responding now for what might hit the Horn of Africa next year, and in the years to come”, Van de Wiel said. “We must act now to save children’s lives, preserve their dignity and protect their futures”.
