Number of hungry Kenyans doubles to 3 million: Red Cross
The number of Kenyans needing emergency food aid has doubled in the past three months to three million, the Red Cross said Tuesday, as the impact of a devastating drought worsens.
Kenya is one of several East African countries suffering from food crises, along with Ethiopia; South Sudan, where famine has already been declared; and Somalia, on the brink of its third famine in 25 years.
Like many of its neighbors, Kenya is suffering the effects of two failed rainy seasons in a row, hugely reducing crop harvests. Food prices have soared, pushing inflation to a five-year high of nine percent in February.
"The situation is getting worse every day. Malnutrition rates among children are steadily climbing. Children are getting sick, and livelihoods of families have been decimated following the loss of thousands of their livestock," Dr. Abbas Gullet, the secretary general of the Kenya Red Cross Society, said in a statement.
"It is more and more difficult for people to access water -- people are having to travel for up to three times as long just to get water for their family."
Read More:
In Kenya, the drought has also exacerbated clashes between pastoralist communities, which have left over 30 people dead, and also imperiled wildlife - a main draw card for tourists.
The number of Kenyans going hungry could increase to four million in the coming weeks, the statement said.
More than 340,000 children under the age of five are also acutely malnourished.
"We are running out of words to describe the situation in affected parts of Kenya, and across the region," said Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, the International Federation of Red Cross regional director for Africa.
(Source: AFP)
Israeli forces continue recruiting South Africans for war in Gaza: Activists
Descendants of Caribbean slaves break silence around France’s shameful past
45 dead as bus heading to Easter festival falls off cliff in South Africa
French praise Iran missile retaliation against Israel
Two Palestinians killed in West Bank amid drastic rise in settler attacks
SCO chief condemns Israel’s terrorist attack on Iran’s Syria consulate
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
April 15: ‘Axis of Resistance’ operations against Israeli occupation
Yale students threaten hunger strike over university connection to Gaza war
Iran to UN: Anti-Israeli retaliation could have been wider in scope
VIDEO | Punishment promise fulfilled
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
