At least seven people have died from starvation in Borena area in southern Ethiopia following severe drought, local authorities and residents.
A two-month-old baby and elderly people were among those killed, according to Dhenge Wario, a district administrator in the Oromia region close to the border with neighboring Kenya.
“People are not eating food for many days. Their cattle are all dead,” he told reporters.
Guyo Turu, a resident of the district which is mostly populated by pastoralist communities, said his 16-year-old son had died.
“He got sick because of hunger; we had nothing. When we took him to the hospital they told us [his illness] was related to shortage of food. He died shortly after that,” he said.
According to the office for food security and disaster prevention in the Borena zone, more than 800,000 people need emergency food assistance as a result of the drought.
“The number of people seeking aid is increasing” the head of the office said.
The government and non-governmental organizations are providing food aid, but the needs are much greater than what has been delivered, he continued.
However, a local branch of the office claimed that it was unaware of any deaths caused by a lack of food.
Following five consecutive years with insufficient rainfall, the Horn of Africa is experiencing what the UN has dubbed “the most severe drought in two generations.”.
More than 4.5 million cattle have died in Ethiopia as a result of the drought since 2021, according to previous estimates by the UN’s migration agency IOM.
Author-Roberta Appiah
