Oxfam launches largest appeal in Africa

Written By:KNA/Humphrey Bwayo,    Posted: Tue, Jul 05, 2011

"In Somalia the price of a main staple sorghum has raised by a massive 240 percent since last year," said Cocking.

Oxfam has  launched its largest ever appeal in Africa in response to a massive food crisis facing more than 12 million people across Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
The agency needs £50   million (KHS650 million) to reach 3 million people in horrible need of clean water, food and basic sanitation.

"This is the worst food crisis of the 21st Century and we are seriously concerned that large numbers of lives could soon be lost Said Jane Cocking," Oxfam's Humanitarian Director in a press release.  

She said two successive poor rains, entrenched poverty and lack of investment in affected areas have pushed 12 million people into a fight for survival. 

People have already lost virtually everything and the crisis is only going to get worse over the coming months, we need funds to help us reach people with life-saving food and water." She added.

Cocking said that two epicenter of the drought has hit the poorest people in the region in an area on both sides of the borders of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia where families rely heavily on livestock for survival.

She also noted that in some parts of the region, up to 60 percent of their herds have already died while the remainder is either sick or dangerously underweight and the price of animals has plummeted by half while the cost of cereals has soared.

"In Somalia the price of a main staple sorghum has raised by a massive 240 percent since last year," said Cocking.

She further said that malnutrition rates in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are alarming and well above emergency levels in some places five times higher than crisis threshold.

In Dolo Ado, a camp in southern Ethiopia for Somali refugees, malnutrition rates are the highest recorded in this region since the nineties.

She said the aid effort faces enormous hurdles and there is no enough money to buy food in the quantities required and the price of maize has risen by up to 40 percent since a year ago in the region while the cost of fuel needed to transport food to the epicenter has also shot up.

Cocking further revealed that in Kenya Oxfam aims to help 1.3 million people with clean water, cash initiatives and veterinary support for people's livestock. 

"In Somalia it will expand its work in clean water, promotion of hygiene and veterinary rugs to support three quarters of a million people." explained cocking. 

She said that in Ethiopia the agency aims to reach approximately one million people with clean water, basic sanitation and veterinary support.

"This is a preventable disaster and solutions are possible, it's no coincidence that the worst affected areas are the poorest and least enveloped in the region." she said adding that More needs to be done to make sure communities are more resilient to increasingly frequent crises in the future

Oxfam is a member of Oxfam International and a company limited by guarantee registered in England.