Kura Calisha April 6 (BNA) After three years of rain, animals died in Kura Calisha village in southern Ethiopia. Dozens of decomposing cattle carcasses lie on the parched ground, their flesh picked up by scavengers.
Gilo Wale, a local government official, fears that the villagers are close to succumbing to drought. He said more than 100 local residents are in hospital in a critical condition from malnutrition, Reuters reported.
“This number includes children, the elderly and pregnant women,” said Gilo, who lost 73 of his 75 cows due to starvation.
Like its neighbors Somalia and Kenya, southern Ethiopia is suffering from the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in decades.
Five consecutive rainy seasons have failed and the current one is expected to succeed too, leading to warnings from aid agencies that more help is needed to avert a humanitarian crisis.
It is estimated that nearly 12 million people, a tenth of the population, are food insecure in drought-affected areas of Ethiopia, according to the United Nations, which defines insecurity as the lack of regular access to safe, nutritious food needed for growth and development. and everyday life.
Somalia was hardest hit by a drought that killed an estimated 43,000 people last year, but the famine many aid workers predicted was still lacking.
No deaths have yet been directly attributed to the drought in the Oromia region, where Kura Kalesha is located, or neighboring drought-affected areas in Ethiopia, but humanitarians expect it won’t be long.
MI