East Africa threatened by soaring food prices-Oxfam

(SomaliNet) Development charity Oxfam warned Thursday that soaring food prices are threatening to trigger a humanitarian catastrophe in east Africa, where people are struggling to afford basic food.

Oxfam, the British-based group appealed for funds to support emergency aid across the region, where it said millions face being tipped towards severe hunger in countries including Somalia and Ethiopia.

\"This is a catastrophe in the making, we have time to act to before it becomes a reality,\" said Oxfam\'s Rob McNeil, who recently returned from the region.

According to Oxfam, skyrocketing food prices are compounding long-term problems like drought, conflict and poverty, which estimates that between nine million and 13-million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
McNeil said the cost of food has risen by up to 500 percent in some places, leaving people who have suffered drought after drought in recent years in \"utter destitution.\"

\"Some of the roads we travelled on were littered with dead livestock. There is little or no pasture or water for the animals that people rely upon. People are increasingly becoming desperate,\" he said.

\"I saw people in one village reduced to pounding the food pellets intended for their animals into porridge to feed their families. We fear that the worst could be yet to come as the crisis deteriorates across east Africa.\"

According to Oxfam, 2,6-million people need emergency aid in Somalia, around 35 percent of the population. But this could increase to 50 percent by the end of this year, it said. Some 18-24 percent of children are acutely malnourished.

In Ethiopia, the number of people in need of urgent aid has more than doubled since the start of the year, from 2,2-million to 4,6-million.

In Turkana, northern Kenya, 25 percent of children are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to an Oxfam survey. -AFP