East Africa Drought (Ethiopia) - Action Against Hunger Response 2011

26 July 2011 - The year 2011 is proving to be the driest year since 1951 in many parts of east Africa as a result of an increasingly severe drought. Successive seasons of failed rains combined with increasing food prices conflict and limited humanitarian access have resulted in food insecurity water shortages and acute malnutrition rates well above emergency thresholds. Between 11 and 12 million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance in Djibouti Ethiopia Kenya and Somalia. With CIDA support Action Against Hunger (ACF) is providing life-saving support to malnourished Somali refugees arriving in the Dolo Ado refugee camp in south-eastern Ethiopia. Through its supplementary feeding programme ACF is targetting moderately malnourished mothers and children to initially stabilize and ultimately improve their nutritional status. In addition ACF expects to convey basic nutritional education to the entire target community to prevent a wider deterioration of the situation.