Save the Children welcomes the Federal Government’s pledge of $15 million towards the food security crisis in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.
Across the Horn of Africa, four failed rainy seasons have led to the worst drought in 40 years, leaving more than 18.6 million people facing an alarming hunger and malnutrition crisis.
Climate change, Covid and conflict in Ukraine have combined to create a perfect storm of factors leading to the worst hunger crisis the world has seen this century.
In Somalia fifty per cent of the population, or 7.8 million people, are now facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse. This includes 1.48 million children suffering from acute malnutrition.
In some areas of Uganda, it is estimated that forty per cent of the population is going hungry, including tens of thousands of children.
In Kenya an estimated 942,000 children under five are acutely malnourished and in need of treatment.
Save the Children CEO Mat Tinkler said the funding is great start, but there is still much more to be done to address a crisis of this magnitude.
“This funding is a solid down payment and a welcome indication of the political will needed to address the desperate humanitarian need of nations hit hard by the global hunger crisis.
“However, there is much more Australia, and the international community can, and must, do,” Mr Tinkler said.
Save the Children Australia is calling on the Australian Government to urgently commit $150 million to emergency relief in the world's worst-affected hunger hot spots, including the Horn of Africa, with a further $200 million annually over three years, and to implement a long-term strategy to address food security worldwide.
“Many countries in the Horn of Africa are feeling the brunt of the climate crisis while also being some of the lowest contributors to its causes. For the developed world, particularly large emitters, to abandon the people of Africa in a time of such dire need would be inhumane in the extreme.
“The Australian Government cannot, in good conscience, watch such catastrophic human suffering unfold knowing we had more capacity to do something about it,” Mr Tinkler said.
Save the Children is currently working in South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Yemen to stop children and their families dying from hunger.
Five million dollars of this announced funding has been allocated to the Emergency Action Alliance, of which Save the Children Australia is a member. To donate visit: https://emergencyaction.org.au/hunger-crisis.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Jessica Brennan on 0421 334 918 or media.team@savethechildren.org.au.