Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

First lady pleads for African aid

Food insecurity, loss of livestock among drought’s effects

- DARLENE SUPERVILLE AND EVELYNE MUSAMBI

LOSITETI, Kenya — U.S. first lady Jill Biden got an upclose look Sunday at the historic East Africa drought as she walked along arid land and listened as some Maasai women described how their children and livestock are going hungry. She appealed for more countries to join the United States to help alleviate the suffering.

Some areas of the Horn of Africa have endured five consecutiv­e failed rainy seasons, meaning there was no rainfall or an insufficie­nt amount to help farmers with their crops and livestock. An upcoming sixth rainy season, beginning in March, is expected to be about the same or worse.

Biden, who was on the final day of a five-day visit to Africa, toured an outreach center in the town operated by World Vision with support from UNICEF and the World Food Program. She chatted with people who had taken their children to be screened for malnutriti­on. She participat­ed in a discussion with a group of women, including a mother of 10 children, who shared their stories.

“They talked about how their livestock are dying. Obviously, you can see the drought here, how bad it is,” the first lady told reporters. “The one source of water here feeds 12 villages and each village has approximat­ely a thousand to 1,200 people.”

“So they are coming here, the people are coming to get water, they’re bringing their livestock to get water. But unfortunat­ely, for many of them, the way they make their living is from their livestock and for most of them, the livestock are dying, so they’re having a hard time,” she said.

Biden noted that the United States has provided 70% of the money sent to the region to help alleviate the suffering, “but we cannot be the only ones.”

“We need to have other countries join us in this global effort to help these people of the region,” she said, adding that the drought was competing with humanitari­an efforts tied to Russian’s war in Ukraine and an earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people in Turkey and Syria.

“I mean, there are a lot of competing interests but, obviously here, people are actually, livestock, people are starving,” she said.

Members of the Maasai community, who are predominan­tly herders, live in Kajiado county where Biden visited.

Nearly 23 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are thought to be highly food insecure, which means they do not know where they will find their next meal, according to a food security working group chaired by the U.N. Food and Agricultur­e Organizati­on and the regional Intergover­nmental Authority on Developmen­t.

A Maasai elder, Mingati Samanya, 69, said he lost 10 cows during the recent prolonged dry season and struggled to find hay for the rest of his herd.

“The short rains last year were insufficie­nt and right now we are back to struggling for pasture. We hope the long rains will be enough,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Biden sought to use her stature to help focus the world’s attention on the worsening humanitari­an crisis in East Africa by touring the drought-stricken area near Kenya’s border with Tanzania.

On the nearly three-hour drive south of Nairobi, the capital, Biden’s lengthy motorcade passed over dry river and creek beds. Numerous cows were walking alongside the highway — many so thin that their ribs were showing.

Throngs of people lined both sides of the motorcade route at various points, waving or using their cellphones to record the event.

Some 4.4 million people in Kenya are facing high levels of food insecurity, with the number projected to rise to 5.4 million in March, according to an analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classifica­tion.

Already, 11 million livestock that are essential to many families’ health and livelihood have died. Many of the people affected are farmers who have watched their crops wither and die, and their water sources run dry.

Northern Kenya, which is arid and semi-arid and is where pastoralis­t communitie­s live, is most affected.

The country’s agricultur­e sector heavily relies on rainfall, and the meteorolog­ical department is predicting delayed rains in the upcoming short rainy season that should begin in March.

 ?? (AP/Brian Inganga) ?? U.S. first lady Jill Biden (center) greets women of the Maasai community Sunday as they explain the drought situation in Ngatataek, Kenya.
(AP/Brian Inganga) U.S. first lady Jill Biden (center) greets women of the Maasai community Sunday as they explain the drought situation in Ngatataek, Kenya.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States