In the afflicted areas, inhabitants - who eke out a living mainly from herding and subsistence farming - are experiencing their fifth consecutive poor rainy season since the end of 2020.
Across the region, 1.7 million people have been driven from their homes by a lack of water and pasture, it said.The Horn of Africa is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, and extreme weather events are occurring with increased frequency and intensity. At that time, the region had encountered two poor rainy seasons, compared to five in the current drought.
In December, OCHA said the troubled nation was technically not yet in the grip of full-blown famine thanks to the response of aid agencies and local communities. OCHA warned that by June, the number of people at the highest level on the UN's five-scale food insecurity classification was expected to more than triple to 727,000 from October, meaning they have dangerously little access to food and could face starvation.According to the UN children's agency UNICEF, almost two million children across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia require urgent treatment for severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of hunger.
An overview of the challenges and opportunities of the climate crisis, as it changes the world we know."There is no end in sight for the hunger crisis and hope is slowly fizzling out," said Xavier Joubert, Ethiopia director for the British charity Save the Children.