Urgent action, in particular immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access, is required to address the widening famine in Sudan, where almost 25 million people face acute food insecurity.

According to the latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), half of Sudan’s population – or 24.6 million people – are facing acute food insecurity levels. This is 3.5 million more people since June 2024.

The latest report by the IPC, a multi-partner initiative for improving food security and nutrition analysis and decision-making, is the worst in the country’s history. Widespread starvation and acute malnutrition have already resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in a country where almost two-thirds of the population depends on agriculture.

Production of key crops such as sorghum, millet and wheat during the first year of the conflict – the 2023/24 season – was down 46 percent from the previous year. This production loss could have fed approximately 18 million people for a year and represented an economic loss of between $1.3 and $1.7 billion.

Restricted humanitarian access is exacerbating the situation, while sustained violence and economic turmoil have disrupted markets, driving the price of staple goods to unaffordable levels.

This marks the fourth time that famine has been confirmed in a country over the past 15 years.

“We must take urgent action to address the famine in Sudan,” said Beth Bechdol, the Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations told a UN Security Council meeting in New York.

“If we fail to act now, collectively, and at scale, millions of lives are even further at risk, and (…) so is the stability of many nations in the region,” she added.

According to Bechdol, the following actions deserve prioritizing and require the Security Council’s support:

1) political leverage to end hostilities and bring relief to the people of Sudan;

2) immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access, as well as safe reopening of commercial supply routes to address current shortfalls in key hunger hotspots, as stated recently by FAO and its UN partner agencies;

3) the delivery of multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance, especially emergency agricultural support which is key to ensuring local food production, building resilience and preventing further humanitarian catastrophe.

The source of Sudan’s conflicts?

2020 Pew Research Center data estimates that 91 percent of the population is Muslim, 5.4 percent Christian, 2.8 percent follow Indigenous religions, and the remainder follow other religions or are unaffiliated. Some religious advocacy groups estimate non-Muslims make up more than 13 percent of the population.

Sudan ended over a quarter-century of Islamist-military rule with the 2019 overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir, whose rule was based on Islamism, Arab supremacy, and the ruthless application of military power, according to the Jameston Foundation: A joint civilian-military government was formed to lead the transition to a civilian-led democracy. However, an October 2021 coup led by Sudan’s military and security forces ended all progress toward civilian rule, severing at the same time most of Sudan’s economic and financial ties to the West.

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Yemen’s already dire hunger crisis is teetering on the edge of outright catastrophe, with 17.4 million people now in need of food assistance and a growing portion of the population coping with emergency levels of hunger, UN agencies tell us.

The humanitarian situation in the country is poised to get even worse between June and December 2022, with the number of people who likely will be unable to meet their minimum food needs in Yemen possibly reaching a record 19 million people in that period, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN World Food Programme  and UNICEF alerted.

At the same time, an additional 1.6 million people in the country are expected to fall into emergency levels of hunger, taking the total to 7.3 million people by the end of the year, the agencies added.

A new report also shows a persistent high level of acute malnutrition among children under the age of five. Across Yemen, 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished, including nearly more than half a million children facing severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition. In addition, around 1.3 million pregnant or nursing mothers are acutely malnourished.

Hunger a product of Middle East conflict

“The resounding takeaway is that we need to act now. We need to sustain the integrated humanitarian response for millions of people, including food and nutrition support, clean water, basic health care, protection and other necessities,” said the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly.

“Peace is required to end the decline, but we can make progress now. The parties to the conflict should lift all restrictions on trade and investment for non-sanctioned commodities. This will help lower food prices and unleash the economy, giving people the dignity of a job and a path to move away from reliance on aid,” he added.

Conflict remains the primary underlying driver of hunger in Yemen. The economic crisis – a by-product of conflict – and the depreciation of the currency have pushed food prices in 2021 to their highest levels since 2015. The Ukraine war is likely to lead to significant import shocks, further driving food prices. Yemen depends almost entirely on food imports with 30 percent of its wheat imports coming from Ukraine.

“Many households in Yemen are deprived of basic food needs due to an overlap of drivers,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. “FAO is working directly with farmers on the ground to foster their self-reliance through a combination of emergency and longer-term livelihood support, to build up their resilience, support local agrifood production, and offset people’s reliance on imports.”

Meanwhile, acute malnutrition among young children and mothers in Yemen has been on the rise. Among the worst hit governorates are Hajjah, Hodeida and Taizz. Children with severe acute malnutrition are at risk of death if they don’t receive therapeutic feeding assistance. 

“More and more children are going to bed hungry in Yemen,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “This puts them at increased risk of physical and cognitive impairment, and even death. The plight of children in Yemen can no longer be overlooked. Lives are at stake.”

Yemen has been plagued by one of the world’s worst food crises. Parents are often unable to bring their children to treatment facilities because they cannot afford transportation or their own expenses while their children are being assisted.

Save the Children is one organisation you can help. 

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Well, not quite, but I got your attention. Raise an icy glass filled with clean water: it’s World Water Day. In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly declared each March 22 to be World Day for Water, raising awareness of water issues at local and global levels. The first World Water Day made a splash in 1993.  Waves of educational events and symposia on water management and security cause participation to swell.

School kids and environmental groups keep the day vibrant.  The internet makes event-promotion a snap. Particularly powerful is the UN’s website, which offers free campaign materials to help stage your own event,  links to what others are doing, and methods to reduce your water footprint. Drink in their facts:

Why is water key to food security?
Erratic rainfall and seasonal differences in water supply cause food shortages. Drought is the most common cause of severe food shortages in developing countries, causing more deaths during the last century than any other natural disaster.

How much water is needed to produce our food?
Crop, livestock and aquaculture production require water sourced from rain and groundwater (green water) or from rivers, wetlands, lakes and aquifers (blue water). Globally, irrigation is 70% dependent on blue water withdrawals.There will be 9 billion people to feed on the planet by 2050. Meat consumption is expected to rise, in turn, demanding additional crop production for animal foodstock.

It takes 1500 liters of water to produce 1 kg of wheat, but it takes 15,000 liters to produce 1kg of beef.

How does water scarcity affect our food security?
Water scarcity affects every continent and more than 40% of earth’s population. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in regions with absolute water scarcity. Two-thirds of the world could be living under water-tressed conditions. South Asia, East Asia and the Middle East are close to their resources limits, and populations are growing.

Is competition for water increasing?
Water demands of cities and industry are growing faster than agricultural demands. Non-food crops (e.g., biofuels) also compete for water. Utilizing food byproducts to produce biofuels (instead of growing specific bioenergy crops) would limit pressure on water resources and competition with food crops. Competition reduces access to water for the poor and other vulnerable groups.

How can we protect this precious resource?
Pollution reduces water availability. Pollution stems for inappropriate industrial and agricultural practices, and urban waste production. In agriculture, overuse of fertilizers and pesticides contaminates waterbodies. Intensive livestock production can also impact the quality of water resources. New, more integrated approaches to food production can substantially improve the situation. Drainage water, treated wastewater, brackish and desalinated water, especially in arid and semi-arid zones, can be recycled as a reliable source of water and nutrients for agriculture.

How can we reduce waste?
Roughly 30% of the food produced worldwide – about 1.3 billion tons – is wasted every year. In developing countries, losses occur between the farm and market because of poor storage and transport. In developed countries, particularly cities, food is wasted by consumers insensitive to the resources needed to produce it. Diets with excessive food intake are also a source of waste.  Consumer attitudes must change.  A 50% reduction of food waste at the global level would save 1,350 km3 of water (for comparison, the storage capacity of Egypt’s Lake Nasser is less than 85 km3).

When I was a kid, “Save Water” public service announcements perpetually ran on summer TV. Those old remedies remain valid. My parents skipped the car washing and let the lawn go brown.  My brothers and I endured the “half-filled-bathtub” rule, which is why this video gem hit home for me:

New York Save Water

Please take a swim through the Green Prophet archives to find excellent tips on choosing food with positive water impact. Maybe give meat a mini-vacation in your diet?  Explore a hundred other excellent ways to celebrate World Water Day.  Then exercise your new-found conservation savvy every day thereafter.  To paraphrase my peers in the video: Keep the world wet.  Save Warrrter.

Image of muscular man from Shutterstock

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Regardless of criticism or the fact that its narrator was arrested for disorderly conduct in San Diego, the Kony 2012 campaign video that recently “went viral” on social media networks has demonstrated that the masses can be called to action when invisible people from the planet’s underbelly are in need.

Unfortunately, no video exists to convey the desperation of people living in the drought-stricken Sahel region south of the Sahara desert, but Oxfam International warns that 12 million people are facing a severe food crisis due to failed crops, erratic rains, and other factors.

No food to eat

“Some families have almost nothing to eat, and I worry about how they will feed themselves until the next harvest,” said Sengalese musician Babaa Maal during a February visit to Mauritania.

The internationally renowned artist who regularly campaigns to improve the lives of African citizens launched an appeal to the international community to act before the food crisis unfolding in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger reaches emergency status.

“We cannot watch and do nothing while our brothers and sisters in Mauritania are victims of such a crisis. I have been able to see the solutions that are being put in place. We have to support and strengthen them,” Oxfam quoted Maal in a recent press release.

Horn of Africa

Low rainfall, poor harvests, a lack of pasture and rising food prices are among the key factors contributing to the crisis, according to the international aid agency. 700,000 Mauritania residents alone are uncertain where they will receive their next meal.

Last year we watched as millions of people in the Horn of Africa dragged themselves across Ethiopia to seek humanitarian aid at camps in Kenya after a drought crippled the region, but many, including thousands of young children, succumbed to malnutrition and starvation along the way.

But this year, Oxfam International is working ahead to raise the funds to avert the worst case scenario. The non-profit organization began issuing clarion calls in December.

Proactive fundraising

“By investing now in earlier and more cost-effective actions, vulnerable populations can be protected from the worst impacts of the coming crisis at a much lower cost than if we waited,” Oxfam reports.

If their fundraising efforts are successful, Oxfam should be able to help people like Hamila in Maurtinaia, who was grateful just to receive enough money from Oxfam to buy a bag of rice that will feed her five children for several weeks.

“Hamila is among the most vulnerable people in her community but there are many other people who need our help” explained Baaba Maal.

image credit: Oxfam, flickr

More on Drought, Food Insecurity, and Water Shortages:

7 Agricultural Solutions That Will Save the Middle East

Gazan Farmers Struggle With Rising Salinity and Water Shortages

Horn of Africa Famine: A Cautionary Tale for MENA

The post A Clarion Call for Sahel Drought Victims appeared first on Green Prophet.

Bono and Sukkot. These are two words that you have probably have never seen in the same article, let alone in the same sentence, but the U2 frontman is breaking ground by drawing connections between between important social causes and Jewish symbols. Besides being one of the greatest rockers alive, many of you may know that Bono’s advocacy group fights poverty and brings awareness to the dire situation that permeates the horn of Africa, where a severe drought has affected millions of people. The group recently released a PDF booklet that links the desperate situation there with the ancient Jewish holiday Sukkot that is still underway until Thursday. While Jews gather in makeshift booths to remember the past reality of wandering throughout the desert, according to NPR, presently 4 in every 10,000 children are dying every day as a result of the present reality of drought and famine.

The Sukkot 2011 booklet communicates the lessons of Sukkot and ties it to the situation in Africa by providing facts and figures to Jews observing the holiday and community leaders such as rabbis. The goal according to the creator of the project Marc Friend at the AJWS (American Jewish World Service) is to wake up socially conscious Jews to the situation there.

From the ONE blog:

This month the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (October 12 to 19), or the Feast of Tabernacles, is a time traditionally given to the remembrance of the Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land and to the celebration of the harvest. Yet the ongoing famine in the Horn of Africa continues to loom large: over 13 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking in food and water. In the midst of such a crisis, Sukkot — a festival that is a celebration of plenty — provides an opportunity to consider those who are lacking, and how we might be able to help and raise them up. ONE campaigner Marc Friend, former Eisendrath Fellow at the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, and currently on the team at American Jewish World Service put together a Sukkot guide for reflection, discussion and action.

The guide explains that while drought is an act of nature, famines are man made. Some suggestions have come that instead of observers inviting the traditional biblical ushpizin (Sukkot Guests) into their sukkah this year, to instead welcome the hungry.

While for Jews it is a holiday that is drenched with symbolism, in Africa living in temporary structures is a reality. Another reality is lack of access to any types of harvest and with a drought that has been the worst in 60 years and lack of access to fresh water. Hunger and powerlessness flow throughout the land. People are dying. Needlessly. Bono’s pamphlet basically draws on the global Jewish teaching of Tikkun Olam (Healing of the Earth) to relieve human suffering.

While the holiday provides Jews with an opportunity to celebrate the triumphs of our long history, it also should be seen as an opportunity to recognize that while we are free, there are others that are still hungry and thirsty and are wandering in the desert. Kudos to Bono for getting involved and making the connection. The world needs more Bonos!

:: The Forward

More on famine and drought:

The Horn of Africa Famine: A Cautionary Tale for MENA

Egypt Could Be on the Brink of Famine

Bahrain Gives a $4 Million Post-Ramadan Gift to Famine-Struck Somalia

The post Bono Fixes the World the Jewish Way of Sukkot appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Horn of Africa famine has already claimed 29,000 children under the age of five and shows no signs of abating. The images of emaciated babies with bones piercing through their skin and horror-struck mothers who have no choice but to abandon their lifeless children on the side of dusty roads are perhaps too difficult for most people to see. Avoiding the unspeakable seems human enough, but Bahrain’s Information Affairs Agency (IAA) could not continue to look away from the people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia who stare down death every day. 

Brothers and sisters

Although Ramadan is now officially over, a holy month of spiritual reflection, fasting and mindful eating, and identification with the poor, adherents around the world have been keenly aware that many of their brothers and sisters in Somalia are enduring unbearable suffering. Now, with sweet-filled Eid festivities behind them, Muslims returning to their normal consumption behaviors may place their concentration elsewhere.

But the people of Somalia are not forgotten.

$4 million moral duty

Responding to their “religious, moral, and patriotic duty,” according to Gulf News, the IAA raised $4 million to be used to purchase food and set up health centers as needed in Somalia. Shaikh Fawaz Bin Mohammad Al Khalifa donated these funds to the Royal Charity Foundation, which celebrated its tenth anniversary this year.

But getting these funds to Somalia, which has been plagued by civil war over the last two decades, could be difficult. Spokepeople for the World Food Program recently reported that unscrupulous businessmen in the country are usurping up to half of the food sacks supplied by major organizations such as UNAID and the Japanese government. These are then sold from corrugated shacks for a profit.

Rogue elements in Somalia have long thwarted aid workers, but the WFP claims that withdrawing is not the answer to this challenge, since a cessation of assistance “would lead to many unnecessary deaths,” the Guardian reports. Meanwhile, investigating food theft has proven fatal to 14 WFP aid workers who have been killed since 2008.

Fleeing to Yemen

Refugee camps in Kenya have long since reached their healthy capacity, so many refugees desperate to flee the famine and violence in Somalia are risking the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. Already home to 192,000 Somalis, Yemen is itself one of the poorest, hungriest, and thirstiest countries in the world.

Earlier this month we urged readers to understand this drought and famine as a harbinger of things to come in the Middle East (Egypt is already on the brink of famine) unless serious measures are taken to curtail emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. We congratulate Bahrain’s generous outpouring of support, but we need to fix the root of this problem (there are many to be sure – economic, environmental, and political), and we need to fix it on a global scale.

:: Gulf News

More on drought and famine in the Middle East:

The Horn of Africa Famine: A Cautionary Tale for MENA

Egypt Could Be on the Brink of Famine

Yemen’s Water Crisis Could Worsen Security

image via Pressenza Creative Commons

The post Bahrain Gives a $4 Million Post-Ramadan Gift to Famine-Struck Somalia appeared first on Green Prophet.

Tens of thousands of people, many of them children, have already died in Somalia – the seat of what is being called the Horn of Africa famine. While many news outlets focus on Rupert Murdoch, for whom oil shale in Israel is likely a dwindling concern by now, we really ought to have our eyes on Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya,  Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, where global warming, climate change, higher carbon concentrations, whatever you want to call one of the most serious challenges humanity has ever faced,  is presently, right now, starving millions of people to death. And we should be looking because we in the Middle East could be next.

Climate change is dramatic

I know that sounds dramatic. But climate change is dramatic  and will become even more so if our level of preparedness is not escalated. Today, the United Nations officially upgraded the drought, the second year in a row that the rains have failed in North Eastern Kenya and Southern Somalia, a famine.

NPR reports that “30 percent of children [are] acutely malnourished and 4 in every 10,000 [are] dying each day,” and Andrew Wander, writing for Al Jazeera, says that Save the Children have “treated thousands of  drought-affected children for malnutrition in Kenya alone.”

With the next rains not expected until October, the situation is bound to get much much worse.

Wander writes,

“Whether you ask about the carcasses of livestock baked white in the sun, the gaggle of people crowding around the district commissioner’s door, or the wards of malnourished children lying listlessly in hospital beds, the explanation given is always the same. “It’s because of the drought.”

The UN has called this the worst drought in sixty years but journalists on a listserv I follow wonder about this number. Is it meteorologically the worst drought on record, or is the humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding the worst in sixty years?

What makes this the worst drought in 60 years?

Patrick Luganda, Chair of the Network of Climate Journalists in the Greater Horn of Africa (NECJOGHA) wrote this in an email that was so enlightening for the lessons it carries for the Middle East that I had to share it.

Technically the worst ‘meteorological drought’ may not necessarily be the worst drought in actual impacts on communities and the public in general. For instance the driest year on record say in a ten year period may be described and the worst drought year in meteorological terms but if the affected countries or regions are adequately warned in time, these countries may prepare to counter this dry period and less human suffering is recorded. This means that the terrible drought in humanitarian terms may not be because of the worst dry year in history but rather by the lack of preparedness by the given country or community to respond to the drought conditions.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) linked last year’s drought in the Horn of Africa to “warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Indian Ocean,” or climate change. Although prone to drought, rainfall has become increasingly scarce in the region during the last decade.

Why people in the MENA region really ought to pay attention

The World Bank calls the Middle East “particularly vulnerable to climate change.” Last year, 500,000 Syrians evacuated a drought-stricken zone long before the Arab Crisis or Spring emerged.

We have reported time and again that temperatures are rising throughout the Gulf, the Levant, the Magreb, and the Mediterranean, food prices are rising and agriculture is becoming less secure. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are buying up land while they can, but countries in the Middle East and North Africa need to stop looking beyond their borders for answers and start fortifying their own societies.

:: Al Jazeera

More on Drought and Famine in the Middle East:

500,000 Syrians Flee Drought-Stricken Zone

Drip Irrigation Gives Hope to Drought-Plagued Syrian Farmers

Yemen’s Water Crisis Could Worsen Security

image via Canadian Red Cross

The post The Horn of Africa Famine: A Cautionary Tale for MENA appeared first on Green Prophet.

It is no secret to Professor Mohamed Kassas that desertification is one of Egypt’s greatest environmental threats. But the United Nations recently removed all doubt on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought by announcing that no other country in the world is losing its fertile land as quickly as Egypt.

Combined with urban sprawl, desertification usurps the land traditionally used to grow food, creating serious consequences for the country’s ability to feed its people. So serious that if swift measures are not taken, leading experts believe that Egypt could experience a devastating famine.
The empty bread basket

In a report released on 17 June, 2011, the UN announced that Egypt is experiencing a rapid loss of farming territory to desertification mostly because of poor land management. The soil is becoming less fertile and productivity is diminishing.

Together, urban sprawl and construction gobbles up fertile Delta land developed over hundreds of years at an unprecedented rate of 3.5 acres every hour, jeopardizing Egypt’s formerly held reputation as a breadbasket.

According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the report inadequately conveys the seriousness of the situation since it fails to take into consideration construction on land typically put aside for farming, which puts the rate of land loss closer to 5 acres an hour.

The brink of famine

Lack of regulatory oversight and scaled back land reclamation programs on the government side are to blame for this chaos, according to Ismail Abdel Galil, the national coordinator for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

He adds that the growing food gap increases Egypt’s reliance on imports. Already, Egypt purchases much of its wheat from Russia, where agriculture is also vulnerable to natural disasters exacerbated by climate change. Last year devastating fires swept through the country, which has only recently lifted its ban on exports. A crisis in Russian became Egypt’s crisis too.

Ismail Abdel Galil said that unless the authorities act swiftly to combat desertification, the country could be on the “brink of famine.”

:: Al-Masry Al-Youm

More on Egypt and Agriculture:

Egypt to Get 3% of Africa’s Thousand Slow Food Gardens

Climate Change Poses Threat to Egypt’s Farming

Egypt Builds Climate Change Plan for Cairo-Delta Region

The post Egypt Could Be On The Brink Of Famine appeared first on Green Prophet.