NAIROBI, Kenya — International donors and humanitarian agencies have pledged $2.1 billion in new funding to address a rapidly escalating hunger emergency across the Horn of Africa, where millions face starvation amid the worst drought in four decades. The commitments, announced at a high-level summit in Geneva on Wednesday, aim to stave off famine in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, where consecutive failed rainy seasons have decimated crops and livestock.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) convened the pledging conference after warning that more than 36 million people in the region now require immediate food assistance. That figure represents a near-doubling of the number in need compared to the same period last year. The funds, which include contributions from the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and several Gulf states, will support emergency food distributions, water trucking, and malnutrition treatment programs through the end of 2024.
“This is not a slow-onset crisis anymore; it is a full-blown catastrophe unfolding in real time,” said Martin Griffiths, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, in his opening remarks. “We are seeing children die on the side of roads, families walking for weeks in search of water, and entire herds of livestock reduced to bone. The pledges made today are a lifeline, but they must be disbursed immediately.”
A Crisis Forged by Climate and Conflict
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its fifth consecutive failed rainy season, a climatic event scientists say has been made at least 100 times more likely by human-caused climate change. In Somalia alone, the UN estimates that 6.7 million people—nearly half the population—are facing acute food insecurity. The situation is compounded by ongoing conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and political instability in Sudan, which have disrupted supply chains and displaced millions.
“We are witnessing a perfect storm of climate extremes, conflict, and economic shocks,” said Dr. Fatima Jibril, a food security analyst at the International Rescue Committee. “Families who once relied on small-scale farming are now entirely dependent on aid. Without this funding, we will see a repeat of the 2011 famine that killed a quarter of a million people.”
The Human Toll: A Mother’s Choice
In a crowded displacement camp near Baidoa, Somalia, 32-year-old Amina Hassan described the impossible calculus of survival. “I had to choose which of my children would eat today,” she told aid workers last week. “We walked for six days to get here. My youngest, two years old, has not stopped coughing. There is no medicine, and the water we find is brown.”
Hassan’s story is not unique. Across the region, malnutrition rates among children under five have surged past emergency thresholds. In parts of southern Somalia and Ethiopia’s Somali region, one in five children is now acutely malnourished, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global standard for measuring food crises.
The Numbers Behind the Crisis
- 36.4 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above).
- 7.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, with 1.9 million at risk of death without immediate treatment.
- $2.1 billion pledged at the Geneva conference, though the UN estimates a total need of $7 billion for the full humanitarian response in 2024.
- 4.5 million people have been displaced within the region due to drought and conflict, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Why the Crisis Is Different This Time
Unlike previous famines in the region, which were often triggered by war or political collapse, this crisis is being driven primarily by climate change. The La Niña weather pattern, which typically brings drier conditions to East Africa, has been intensified by rising global temperatures. The result is a “climate emergency” that has made traditional pastoralist livelihoods untenable.
“Pastoralists have always known how to survive drought—they move, they sell animals, they rely on clan networks,” said Dr. Abdi Mohamed, a climate resilience expert at the University of Nairobi. “But when you have four consecutive seasons of no rain, those coping mechanisms collapse. There is no grass left to move to. No water to find. The system has broken.”
Economic Pressures Compound the Crisis
Beyond the lack of rain, families are grappling with soaring food prices. The war in Ukraine disrupted global grain supplies, driving up the cost of wheat and cooking oil in East Africa. At the same time, local currencies in Kenya and Ethiopia have weakened against the dollar, making imported food even more expensive. In Somalia, the price of a 50-kilogram bag of sorghum has risen by 60 percent since 2022.
“We are seeing a triple burden: climate shock, conflict, and economic inflation,” said Dr. Jibril. “A family that used to survive on one meal a day is now lucky to eat every other day. The resilience of these communities is extraordinary, but it has limits.”
What the Pledges Mean on the Ground
The $2.1 billion committed on Wednesday will fund the World Food Programme’s emergency operations, including the distribution of specialized nutritional supplements for malnourished children and pregnant women. It will also support cash-transfer programs that allow families to buy food in local markets, helping to stabilize local economies.
However, aid officials caution that pledges often take months to materialize. The UN has urged donor governments to front-load their contributions to prevent a funding gap during the critical lean season, which runs from June to September. “Every day of delay means more children slipping into severe malnutrition,” said Michael Dunford, the WFP’s regional director for East Africa. “We need the money now, not in six months.”
Broader Implications and Next Steps
The crisis in the Horn of Africa is a stark warning for the rest of the world. Scientists at the World Weather Attribution group have concluded that the current drought would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change. As global temperatures continue to rise, such extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent and severe, straining humanitarian systems already stretched thin by crises in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan.
In response, the African Union has called for a continent-wide strategy to build drought resilience, including investments in irrigation, early-warning systems, and drought-resistant crops. The World Bank has also announced a $500 million grant for climate adaptation projects in the region.
For now, however, the immediate priority is survival. Aid agencies are racing to scale up operations before the next rainy season, which is forecast to be below average once again. “We cannot prevent the drought,” said Griffiths. “But we can prevent the famine. That is the choice before us.”
