UPDATE (19th July): The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is coordinating the UK response to the East Africa Food Crisis. As the umbrella organsation for 14 humanitarian aid agencies, the DEC is best placed to distribute donations between aid agencies, where they are most needed. Donations can be made here
The Humanitarian Centre urges a swift response to the growing food crisis in East Africa, following the area’s worst drought in 60 years.
Aid agencies estimate that more than 10 million people are facing desperate food shortages in the Horn of Africa which includes Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Uganda. Children are particularly vulnerable and large numbers of refugees from Somalia are arriving at refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia with severely malnourished children. More than a quarter of Somalians have left their homes “turning one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises into a human tragedy of unimagineable proportions” according to António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
For members of the public wishing to respond, the following UK aid agencies are amongst those who have launched emergency appeals and are providing regular reports on the situation:
Oxfam
Save the Children
British Red Cross
World Vision
