Calls for aid for Kenya after drought

Updated: 22:18, Thursday, 2 March 2006

Millions of people in Kenya are suffering from what has been described as the worst drought to hit the country in living memory.

1 of 1 East Africa 6m at risk from starvation
East Africa
6m at risk from starvation

Millions of people in Kenya are suffering from what has been described as the worst drought to hit the country in living memory.

Government officials in the drought-affected regions have called for a significant increase in aid to the north of the country.

The drought and food crisis is affecting more than six million people across East Africa.

A famine brought on by two years without rain could be only weeks away for an estimated 11 million people across East Africa, according to the United Nations World Food Programme. Four million of them are in Kenya with Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti also affected.

This latest crisis comes after ever-worsening droughts stretching back through 2000, 1997, 1992 and 1987.

The WFP last Wednesday welcomed a contribution from Ireland of €2.5m for its operations in the drought-hit Horn of Africa, where 6.25 million people are running out of food because of the failure of the last rains.

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