Severe Drought in the Horn of Africa

Minneapolis, July 20, 2022 –

The Horn of Africa experiences two rainy seasons per year. The timing varies across the region,
but rains broadly fall from March to May. The lack of these rains in 2022 has been felt
particularly in equatorial parts of the Horn of Africa region, where the long rains contribute 70% of the annual total rainfall. Currently, 16.7 million people are projected to be in crisis (UNOCHA) or worse levels of high acute food insecurity solely due to the drought in The Horn of Africa.

Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed since late 2020, a climactic event not seen in the
last 40 years. This disaster is expected to be worse than the famine in 2011, when 260,000
people died in Somalia alone, 50% of those people being children under the age of 5.
Our Executive Director, Mohamed Idris, and Program Director, Jordan Greene, had the
opportunity to visit the Horn of Africa in June 2022. While in The Horn, they were able to witness firsthand the effects of the drought. It became apparent to Idris that the humanitarian situation in the horn of Africa region is alarming.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report projects that global warming will negatively affect food systems in the region by shortening the growing season and increasing water stress. The combined population of Switzerland and Australia doesn’t add up to the 16.7 million people facing food insecurity in the Horn of Africa. The UNOCHA report further emphasized that the consequences of the prolonged drought conditions have extended to the loss of livestock, with 7 million deaths recorded so far. Another 22 million livestock are estimated to have been severely emaciated due to the drought.

The ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by the drought raises serious questions about future
food and water security in the Horn of Africa. The conditions have increased the workload for
women and female children who are responsible for providing water using donkeys or carrying it on their back; Access to water has increased to a walk between 3 – 5 miles each way. As a
result, female children drop out of school to assist their mothers with this burden.

ARAHA has launched a campaign to support families suffering from this drought. Our teams on the ground in the Horn of Africa allow ARAHA to know what supplies are most needed at this time and respond to the areas in the most need as fast as possible. These supplies include
rice/maize/wheat, cooking oil, evaporated milk, and water. According to our Program Director,
“We are able to distribute food baskets and non-food items for hundreds of drought-affected
families in The Horn of Africa. However, the needs are currently far beyond the resources we
have.”

ARAHA needs donations to continue providing immediate relief and aid to victims of
this disaster. The Executive Director of ARAHA urges donors to think about these families and
support ARAHA’s lifesaving work: “It’s a matter of life and death for these families. Let us save
families before it’s too late. ”

To donate, please visit www.araha.org/donate or text “ARAHA” to 44321.
If you would like more information about ARAHA’s current efforts in The Horn of Africa, please contact Jordan Greene, Program Director (jordan@araha.org), or Ashley Dial, Marketing Director (ashley@araha.org). To learn more about our relief campaign, please visit www.ARAHA.org.

About ARAHA:
ARAHA is a humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) that works in the Horn of Africa region, delivering essentials and developing opportunities. We have a diverse range of programs that brings life to our mission and adapts to the specific needs of each community in which it works. The organization aims to bring immediate relief to those in need throughout the Horn while simultaneously seeking to create the conditions for sustainable opportunity and self-reliance. In all programs ARAHA pursues, it seeks to responsibly enact its mission while delivering essentials and developing opportunities in communities across the Horn.