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Kenyans need $90m - WFP
19/07/2006 15:35 - (SA)
Nairobi - Millions of Kenyan herders still need food aid after a severe drought this year almost wiped out their herds, says the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), appealing for $90m to feed them.
Failed rains late in 2005 and early this year in several east African countries left 11 million people facing starvation. Tens of thousands of livestock and several hundred people died from hunger and thirst.
Despite long rains in April-June, many countries in the region were still smarting from the effects of the drought. Uganda and Tanzania suffered daily power outages, some as long as 24 hours, as water levels in their hydroelectric dams fell below operational levels.
WFP said the April-June rains over arid areas of northern Kenya had been erratic and insufficient to revive herds and warned it had no cereals to distribute in September.
WFP's country director for Kenya Tesema Negash said: "We urgently need donors to step forward and help millions of pastoralists still struggling to recover from recurrent drought.
"The rains didn't end the misery of those who lost all their assets, their livestock, or who don't have enough surviving animals to support themselves."
WFP said malnutrition levels in children were already unacceptably high and it had been forced to cut vegetable oil rations in March and April due to low contributions.
The statement said that WFP was feeding 3.6 million people in Kenya, adding that aid agencies were trucking water to herders as water sources were contaminated with livestock carcasses.
- Reuters
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