Q and A Horn of Africa 06 October 2011 What is the humanitarian
situation in the Horn of Africa? Workers hired by CRS partner
agency the Hararghe Catholic Secretariat (HCS) inspect bags of
split peas provided by USAID before a CRS-supported distribution
as part of the ongoing Productive Safety Net Program in the town
of Chelenko. The program targets more than 302,000 vulnerable
people with food to fill recurring food gaps across much of the
region. In Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and nearby areas, a severe
drought has led to massive numbers of people going hungry.
Famine has been declared in several districts of Somalia.
Because goats and cattle are dying of thirst and starvation,
people who herd livestock are losing their source of food.
Hundreds of thousands of children are malnourished. The extreme
weather has dried up crops, as well as rivers and other water
sources. These losses come at a time when farming households’
food supplies are already extremely low, as they wait for their
mid-year harvest to mature