RIYADH – Millions of people are at risk of starvation in East Africa as the region faces its worst drought on record, a senior UN official said.

In an exclusive interview with Arabic NewsMichael Dunford, United Nations World Food Program regional director for East Africa, says: “The current situation in East Africa, including the Horn of Africa, is the worst we have seen in recent food security history.”

“We are suffering from the worst drought in over sixty years. We had five weak rainy seasons. We are now entering the sixth rainy season and expect it to be below average as well. That means more than twenty-two million people will be affected by the drought itself.

Mr Dunford, who attended the third International Humanitarian Forum in Riyadh earlier this week, continued: “Ethiopia, northern Kenya and Somalia are facing a crisis. Somalia is the country that worries me the most, more than half of the population is in need of humanitarian aid.”

“WFP has significantly expanded its activities in 2022. We already support more than five million people. The problem is that if the rain doesn’t come, the situation will continue to deteriorate.”

In a statement released in November, a consortium of 16 international organizations said massive crop and income losses due to severe drought over the past two years have left millions of people in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia in crisis.

“We are a long-standing partner of the Saudis. We want to see how we can build longer-term relationships and have larger and more reliable funding streams.” – Michael Dunford, WFP East Africa Regional Director

More than three million people in the region are at risk of acute food insecurity, meaning they regularly go a day or more without food and have sold their wealth to survive, the statement said.

In Somalia, the drought has forced more than 1.3 million people to abandon their farms and settle in displaced areas.

Dunford said WFP raised more than $4.6 billion last year because it knows the US is the largest donor but wants to expand its donor base.

“We need funding from all donors, including Saudi Arabia, to meet these ongoing needs,” Dunford said.

“Over the next six months, WFP will need more than US$455 million for our operations in Somalia. The primary responsibility lies with the US government and we ask for support from all donors.”

“We have had great support from Saudi Arabia. In the past five years, WFP has received more than US$1 billion. We are a long-standing partner of the Saudis,” he adds.

“We look forward to seeing how we can continue to expand this relationship, including financial contributions, but also how we can work together beyond humanitarian assistance in areas such as resilience, climate action and eventually the development of these countries.”

The King Salman Humanitarian and Relief Center is supporting the operation in Somalia, Dunford said.

“We hope you’ll join us next month as we distribute posts through your resources. We want to see how we can build longer term relationships and have larger and more reliable funding streams.”

Mr Dunford also highlighted the impact of climate change on the region.

“As I said, 22 million people are currently affected by the drought in South Sudan. Another million people have been displaced because they have faced continuous flooding for four years and the water is still stagnant,” he said.

“So climate change is very real. So when a situation is bad, it gets worse. We must be able to build the resilience of these populations, not only to the current crisis, but also to the next crisis and the one after that.”

“These types of climate shocks will continue. It is important to know to what extent we, as development actors, are able to prepare for the needs of the population and to support the governments of these countries.

However, Mr Dunford stresses that lessons have been learned from previous crises.

A drought in 2011 killed 260,000 people and famine followed two bad rainy seasons, he said.

But now, despite five bad seasons, Somalia is not in the throes of famine, showing the way the investments have been made and the adjusted responses are working, he concludes.

This text is a translation of an article published on Arabnews.com