Drought relief efforts scaled up

Written By:Glena Nyamwaya,    Posted: Mon, Aug 08, 2011

Locals have lost all their livestock and some people are dying due to the ravaging drought that has hit the country The government has scaled up its relief food operations in North Eastern province following the increased number of people in dire need of food due to the ravaging drought. Currently the government is providing relief to about 500,000 people while the World Food Programme (WFP) is feeding another 340,000 people across the province. The food include cereals, beans, oil and unimix for children under 5 faced with acute malnutrition. Briefing the press on the food situation in the province, North Eastern Provincial Commissioner James Ole Seriani said that UNICEF, Northern Water Service Board, Ministry of Northern Kenya and other organizations have spent over 90 million shillings since march this year on water tankering, spares for gensets used by boreholes and trucks ferrying water to areas faced with water acute shortages in the province. Ole Seriani said that WFP in collaboration with the government will provide food to about 155,000 primary school going children during the school holiday whose parents have crossed over to Somalia, Ethiopia and neighbouring districts in search of pasture and water for their livestock. This he noted was to ensure that the children do not drop out of school due to the biting drought. The administrator noted that the food the government and NGOs ‘is only a supplement to feed the hungry'. The PC was also quick to warn those bent to take advantage of the increased relief donations to sell the same that they will be prosecuted. He said under the new Constitution, civilians are allowed to arrest and present to the police those found selling and buying relief food meant for the hungry. Ole Seriani also said that the government is encouraging NGOs that moved to the Dadaab refugee camps in Garissa County to move to Somalia noting that there is relative peace in Bulla Hawa and Dobley in Somalia among other towns. He said the government is working in collaboration with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia to ensure that relief distribution and medical care for the sick goes on uninterrupted in areas they control. "Parts of Somalia that are under the control of TFG are peaceful and safe," he said "The government is encouraging NGOs in the refugee camps to cross the border to Somalia as this will ease congestion at the three refugee camps home to over 400,000 refugees fleeing fighting and drought in war torn Somalia, Ole Seriani added. Ole Seriani also clarified that the Kenya Somali border is closed for trade and other businesses but would remain open for aliens fleeing the war torn country seeking refuge. EAC's plan of action Meanwhile, prompted by a worsening drought across eastern Africa, the East African Community (EAC) is executing a regional emergency plan to help affected pastoralists in arid and semi-arid regions, officials say. "The EAC is implementing a draft regional plan of action on Animal Diseases Control to curb outbreaks of livestock diseases especially trans-boundary ones that are closely related to climatic variability such as the Rift Valley Fever," Nyamajeje Calleb-Weggoro, the director of productive and social sectors at the EAC secretariat in Arusha said. According to the EAC, the drought that has seriously undermined food security in many parts of the five-state community and rendered at millions in need of life-saving interventions, is one of the effects of global warming and climate change, a situation which calls for the appliance of the EAC climate change policy. Issuing an EAC statement on drought and food insecurity in the region, Dr Weggoro said the emergency plan would be undertaken through the EAC climate change strategy and master plan. A special fund to aid the strategy will be set up to mobilize adequate, reliable and predictable financial resources to respond to the impacts of climate change, he added. Meanwhile, in efforts to address recurrent drought and famine in the region, the EAC is considering establishing a joint Strategic Grain Reserve. Dr Weggoro said only Tanzania, so far, has a National Food Reserve system. "And the Strategic Grain reserve in Tanzania is not only in place, but works effectively, while Kenya has to rely on food reserves operated by individuals, institutions or local firms; Uganda until now depends on traditional silos owned by households if our recent study is anything to go by," explained Dr Weggoro. Other efforts include appealing for relief food aid from overseas development partners as well as calling for full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Common Market to eliminate non-tariff barriers to facilitate unhindered movement of foodstuff and other relevant goods within the EAC countries. Border camp assists IDPs Road International a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) operating in Dadaab has opened a camp at the Somali border town of Dobley to offer humanitarian assistance to persons displaced by famine and war in Somalia. According to Kamal Hassan, Road International programme officer, his organization crossed the border in order to reach more people in need of relief assistance in the war torn country. "We decided to move to Somalia to ease the suffering the hunger stricken people who have been trekking for long distances in search of relief assistance in Kenya," he noted. Kamal called on more humanitarian agencies to cross the border and give aid to the starving Somalis and victims of war. "This will help to decongest the already flooded refugee camps in Kenya," he said adding that "there is peace around here. There is no threat from the Al Shabaab insurgents." Sofia Mohamed Guya, an IDP at the Dobley IDP camp asked the International community for more aid noting that the situation in affected areas is dire. She said that they had been suffering at the camp and needed food, water and clothing to survive. According to Barkadley Mohamed, an elder in Dobley, the situation at the camp is peaceful but the people have been hit by famine. He said that the locals have lost all their livestock and some people are dying due to the ravaging drought that has hit the country. "There is no government to help us from this situation. People are devastated from the famine and we hope that international agencies respond before it's too late," he noted.