Malnutrition rates in eastern and south-eastern Ethiopia have soared in recent months as a result of drought, displacement and damage from conflict, with an estimated 185,000 children now suffering from the deadliest form of malnutrition
Prolonged drought coupled with instability, the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of funding have disrupted health services, leaving more than 1 million people in Somalia, Oromia, SNNP and the South-West in need of emergency nutritional support.
Extreme malnutrition is expected to worsen in the coming months as food prices continue to rise due to the depreciation of The Birr in Ethiopia and the war in Ukraine, while the livestock of pastoralist families continue to depreciate, becoming one of the worst droughts in the history of the Horn of Africa and wiping out their cattle herds in Africa.
In the drought-worst-hit part of Eastern Somalia in Ethiopia, malnutrition rates have risen by 64% over the past 12 months, increasing by 43% between January 2022 and July 2022 alone [i]. Cumulative cases of severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of malnutrition in children, reached nearly 50,000 cases in six to seven months.
Severe acute malnutrition is a life-threatening disease that requires urgent treatment. It also significantly weakens a child's immune system, which often means that any additional medical complications or infections can prove fatal.
In the Dawa region of Somalia, Save the Children staff observed that most nomadic communities were "on the brink of starvation". From September 2021 to January 2022, admissions to the Save the Children Nutrition Centre for the treatment of malnutrition increased by more than 320%[ii]. Families report that many children eat only one meal a day.
In the Shabelle region of the Somali region, another area battered by drought and hunger, farming communities reported unusual animal behaviour, including monkeys attacking children and livestock for starvation.
In the south and east, prolonged drought continues to widen and devastate lives and livelihoods, affecting some 8.1 million people in Ethiopia. Nationally, an estimated nearly 30 million people, or a quarter of the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance, including 12 million children.
Ethiopia and other countries in the Horn of Africa – Somalia and Kenya – are suffering from severe droughts caused by the climate crisis. More than 23 million people in these three countries are experiencing extreme hunger, of whom 5.8 million children are severely malnourished.
Save the Children urgently appealed to donors for new funding to meet the needs of children and their families across Ethiopia. The Children's Rights Agency was one of the first organizations to work in the conflict in the north and developed a response plan throughout the country.
Save the Children teams in Somalia and the Oromia region are helping thousands of drought-affected families, but additional funding is urgently needed to scale up activities to meet exponential humanitarian needs.
With more than 60 years of activities in Ethiopia, Save the Children was one of the first responders to the conflicts in the Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions, while continuing to provide humanitarian assistance to protracted humanitarian crises in Oromia and Somalia. The organization's work focuses on health and nutrition and life-saving water and sanitation assistance, protection services, education support and the distribution of cash and goods to the most vulnerable children and their families.