East Africa: food crisis

Written by David Fletcher 21 Jul 2017
East Africa: food crisis

A missionary helping the 24 million people in East Africa dying of starvation has criticised the media for being so ‘distracted’ by Donald Trump that they're failing to notice the worst humanitarian crisis to hit the region since World War 2. Aid worker Paul Healy says that in his twenty years working with Trócaire, a charity set up by the Irish Catholic Church, he's never seen such devastation. ‘The scale of the crisis is enormous. There are 24 million people facing starvation over the coming months,’ he said. The UN has already declared a fully-fledged famine in parts of South Sudan, adding: ‘This means 20% of households face extreme food shortages, 30% of the population face acute malnourishment and there are 2 hunger-related deaths per 10,000 people per day.’. Also Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia will suffer mass death from food and water shortages if ‘prompt and sustained humanitarian intervention’ doesn't happen soon.

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