East Africa Food Crisis

A humanitarian crisis

Communities across East Africa are facing life-threatening shortages of food and water. Severe recurring drought is the major cause.

Explore interactive map

Oxfam is already responding to this crisis. But the number of people facing severe food shortages has risen dramatically in recent months. We urgently need more support to continue this vital work.

Donate to our East Africa Food Crisis appeal

On film: drought in Kenya

Kenya has been hit especially hard by the crisis. In the rural region of Wajir, lack of rain has destroyed whole harvests. Many pastoralists have lost their livestock and main means of making a living.

Special thanks to the Tolkien Trust for their generous donation to our East Africa Food Crisis appeal. Donations like these go a long way to helping us reach the 750,000 people who urgently need our help. With your support we can reach even more. Donate now

Learn more

• Situation overview
• Oxfam's response

Oxfam's response

Oxfam is providing support to more than 750,000 people across the region with a variety of projects.

Find out about our work in:

Ethiopia | Kenya | Somalia | Uganda

Ethiopia

click to view in full screen mode

Oxfam started a drought response programme with pastoral communities in Somali region in 2008 including building special 'birkad' rainwater harvesting tanks to help communities collect and store clean water. In this video Mohammed Semeter from local partner UNISOD introduces a new birkad.

We are also currently carrying out assessments elsewhere in Amhara and Oromia. Our response is likely to prioritise cash vouchers, cash for work, livestock interventions, and provision of water and public health. In addition we are responding to an outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhoea in Afar, Amhara and Addis Ababa.

Slideshow: Ethiopia water and sanitation diary

Slideshow: Diary of an animal health worker

More about Oxfam's Ethiopia drought response

Kenya

Oxfam is trucking in clean water to communities which otherwise do not have any. We are also working with local pastoralist groups to buy up cattle weakened by the drought and at risk of dying – giving the herders an income, and then distributing the meat to hungry families.

Photo gallery: Kenya drought

Slideshow: Responding to drought in Kenya

In the long-term we aim to provide development projects which reduce communities’ vulnerability to the increasing droughts.

Uganda

Oxfam provides water, sanitation and livelihoods support to returnees in Kitgum. Our response to the food crisis is focusing on cash provision and microfinance, and supporting agricultural production through improving access to seeds for the coming rainy season.

We also work with pastoralists in Karamoja, on animal health and grain banking programmes.  We are also lobbying and supporting local authorities to improve drought mitigation planning.

Photo gallery: Uganda food crisis response

Somalia

In Somaliland we are trucking in water supplies to pastoralist areas. Most of our work in Somalia itself focuses on providing water and sanitation for conflict affected people, including in camps along the Afgooye corridor, one of the world’s largest concentrations of displaced people (around 435,000). Oxfam Novib partners are opening therapeutic feeding centres for children in and around Mogadishu.

More about Oxfam's emergency work in Somalia

A deadly combination

The food crisis across East Africa has badly affected Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda and Kenya. Drought is one of the major factors, along with a number of other issues:

Changing seasons

Failed or poor rains are becoming increasingly frequent, leaving communities with less and less time to recover.

In Somalia this is the fifth successive season of poor rains, in Ethiopia it is the fourth and Kenya the third. Communities in northern Kenya recall that rains used to fail once a decade, whereas now they fail every two or three years. The weather in northeast Uganda is also becoming increasingly unpredictable, with longer dry spells. When the rains do come it is often in the form of heavy showers causing floods and landslides.

  If the drought continues we will not be able to raise any animals as there will be no pasture or water. So we will have no money to send our children to school. If we can't get money from raising animals we don't know what else we can do.

Kadra Good, Harshin, Ethiopia

High food prices

Although the price of staple foods and cereals has fallen since the peak of last year, it remains far above usual prices and unaffordable to many families. In Ethiopia the retail price of white maize– the staple most consumed by the poor – is still 72 per cent higher than the five-year average. In parts of Kenya, maize and beans are 170 per cent higher than normal, while in parts of northeast Uganda prices are 170 per cent above average for millet, 140 per cent for sorghum and 130 per cent for maize.

The cost of water is also rising – in rural Kenya a jerry can of water now costs three times its normal price. People are forced to sell their assets – such as livestock – to pay for food and water, alleviating short term hunger but exacerbating long-term problems.

Conflict and displacement

Violent conflict in Somalia has disrupted food production and made poor people even more vulnerable. A quarter of Somalia’s population (1.8m people) have fled their homes, making it much harder to grow food. Roads are highly insecure, meaning food cannot reach markets. In Kenya, food production is much lower since the post-election violence and displacement. In northern Uganda, an influx of returning families after years of conflict has created new pressures. In Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, there are increasing problems with localised conflicts over scarce resources.

Lack of investment and development

It is no coincidence that many of the areas most affected are rural areas which have suffered decades of neglect and under-development from successive governments, particularly in Kenya and Uganda. Groups such as pastoralists are particularly at risk. These are areas with little access to education, healthcare, water and sanitation – making them even more vulnerable.

African governments and international donors continue to under-invest in small-scale community agriculture and national food production, leaving countries vulnerable to global economic markets and trends.

Find out more about Oxfam's response to the crisis