31 Oct 2009

Heavy rains ravish hunger stricken East Africa

After years of drought and famine, the peoples of East Africa are once again facing threat as the rainy season brings heavy rainfall and flash floods. The Red Cross is mobilizing to rebuild local resilience on the brink of a new humanitarian crisis, in both the eastern and western parts of the continent.

african rain

- Pastoralist people here are losing all their livestock because of the drought, and they are living in unfathomable poverty. Thousands are dying from starvation and malnutrition, and now the floods of the rainy season will wash away the last of the means these people rely on to survive, says secretary general of the Norwegian Red Cross, B. Brende.

Two weeks ago, Brende visited Kenya and saw with his own eyes how the first days of the rainy season started to change the lives of north-eastern Kenya's pastoralists.

- The areas in the north of Kenya are amongst the most affected. The people here can really be labelled "the climate-losers", says Brende.

Reuters AlertNet