Saturday August 17, 2024
A WFP-backed food distribution in Adadle, Ethiopia in January. Photo: WFP/Claire Nevill
NAIROBI (Xinhua) — The number of people who are food insecure and in need of humanitarian assistance in Kenya stands at 1 million, Kenya’s National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said Friday.
The NDMA noted that this is a drop from 1.5 million in February, with the agency attributing the decline to the recent rains that boosted food production, including in arid areas.
Out of the 22 arid areas in the East African nation, only one was reported to be in distress with the situation in the rest having improved.
“The number of children aged 6 to 59 months requiring treatment for acute malnutrition has reduced to 760,488 from 847,932 in February,” the NDMA said in the July report released in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
The institution added that the situation is expected to improve further after the onset of the October-December rainy season.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the regional bloc, the number of food-insecure people in the Horn of Africa stood at 67 million in July, a decline from 74.9 million in May.
Of the number, 39 million are in IGAD member states, including Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Sudan, and Uganda.
