Nairobi (Agencies)
A program of a regional organization in East Africa has warned that the severe drought afflicting the Horn of Africa is likely to worsen this year, threatening the region with a famine more severe than the one that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths a decade ago.
The “Climate Projections and Applications Center” in the “Governmental Authority for Development” (IGAD) said in a report that “forecasts during the next rainy season, March and May, show a decrease in the amount of precipitation and an increase in temperatures.”
The precipitation that falls during the rainy season contributes a large percentage (up to 60%) of the total precipitation during the whole year in the Horn of Africa region (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, parts of Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda, and sometimes the term includes Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania).
These forecasts confirm the fears of meteorologists and humanitarian relief agencies that this drought, which is unprecedented in terms of duration and severity, might quickly cause a humanitarian catastrophe.
In its report, the center said, “In some parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda, which have recently been severely affected by drought, this might be the sixth consecutive rainy season.”
The Horn of Africa is one of the regions most affected by climate change, as it is witnessing increasingly frequent and intense crises.