Telling the ECSA Story

Women leave their homes and heading to IDP Camps in caravans in search of refuge much-needed and sustenance. Saddam Mohamed/CARE International FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 25, 2022 - As donors convene in Geneva, over 50 NGOs and NGO networks call for an urgent and substantial step-up in funding and leadership to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe facing millions in the Horn of Africa due to the severe drought, warning that further delays will cost lives.     This drought is compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, desert locusts, and now a further surge in food and commodity prices due to the conflict in Ukraine. Over 14 million people across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya - about half of them children - are already on the verge of starvation. This number will rise to 20 million by the middle of 2022 if the rains continue to fail, prices continue to rise, and significant funds are not surged to meet the needs of those in crisis. In Somalia alone, over half a million people...

Marial and his with the CARE Medical Team 58-year-old Luba Marial was brought to Pariang hospital, in northern South Sudan sweating and with a fever, by family members after suffering years of pain, without apparent diagnosis. Little did he know at the time that he was in a life-or-death situation.   “It started 3 years ago as pain in the kidney.” he says, “I visited the hospital several times, but I didn’t get a cure. I was refereed from Hakima health Centre to Pariang with severe pain, I couldn’t eat nor drink, life was hard for me.”   Upon admission in Pariang referral hospital, Marial was found to have a severe tissue infection with intestinal obstruction that required urgent surgery. Marial’s condition is a rare but severe type of bacterial infection which can destroy the muscles, skin and underlying tissue and is very difficult to treat. It is a highly fatal condition with mortality rates of 30% and above. Most Patients present with septic shock and septicemia...

  Jeanine and her husband laughting Jeanine   lives with her husband and children in Buhombo , North Kivu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). She is a mother of 12 children, the oldest being 22 years of age and the youngest 1-year-old. Jeanine farms and sells Irish Potatoes & beans in her neighborhood and Goma city.      BEFORE MAWE TATU     “To have 12 children wasn’t neither a plan nor a business. It was simply an accident because we didn’t have contraceptives for family planning... We did not know where to find contraceptives and if we knew where [they were], we could have planned.”     Jeanine farming in her land Jeanine and her husband did not plan to have 12 children. They grew increasingly tired of expanding their family as poverty began to take a toll on their family. “My husband and I gave birth without no break in-between. We were asking ourselves where to find help because the situation has brought us poverty,” said Jeanie. Be...

  Zambia. CARE As the conflict in Ukraine continues, the shock waves are being felt all the way in Southern Africa which is still reeling from one of the worst cyclone seasons. From a shortage of relief supplies to hiked fuel costs, communities that were slowly recovering from the loss of livelihoods and floods now face another challenge as the cost of living increases. This has impacted response efforts and raises the worry of how the people will recover and resume normal living as things become more expensive. Hiked wheat and fuel costs are not only causing an increase in the cost of living but also putting the jobs of hundreds, in several sectors, at risk. In Zambia and Zimbabwe, where the economies were already fragile, fuel prices have increased by 13 percent and 7 percent respectively in Countries. On March 11th, Cyclone Gombe, a Category 3 storm struck Nampula province in Mozambique. So far, 61 fatalities have been recorded with over 450,000 people displaced. As humanitarian...

 Indicators point to the erosion of gains made for girls' and women's rights in Somalia as the drought worsens. Girls are being forced to drop out of school putting them at risk of harmful traditional practices such as early marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Women-run businesses have been hit especially hard with 98% of them having lost revenue and income due to the high cost of goods, and 51% have been forced to close. Photo by Saddam Mohamed/CARE As the primary caregivers in the home, women have the responsibility of taking care of children and this can be extremely difficult when their source of income is disrupted. In Dhobley, Somalia, 42-year-old Faduma arrives at an IDP camp with 100 frail goats from her home in Wajir, Kenya. These are all that remain of her herd which comprised of 300 goats that provided her with milk and meat. She has traveled over 200 kilometers with her four children in order to try and sell the remaining goats. “ Unfortunately, most of ou...

  Amina in the IDP camp in Lower Juba. CARE/Saddam Mohammed Under the blistering heat, and being heavy with child, 28-year-old Amina walked over 100 kilometers for 11 days with her children as life at home had become unbearable. This was as a result of losing all their 50 cows and 30 goats, their family’s sole source of livelihood, due to the ongoing drought in Somalia. Amina found refuge at an Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camp in Lower Juba and has since then not been able to communicate with her husband who she left behind. “Sometimes my children go to bed hungry as I have nothing to give them and because their father is not here to help as I am pregnant. We have lost everything to this drought. Life used to be easy for us when we had our livestock. We could sell some to buy what we need. We ran out of water and pasture, and it was sad seeing all our livestock dying right in front of our eyes. Now we don’t even know what our next meal is going to be and when we will have ...

As the conflict in Ukraine continues, hundreds of kilometers away, communities in Africa are feeling the ripple effects. Across the East, Central, and Southern Africa Region, ordinary citizens are experiencing the initial effects even as indicators, and analysts, point to even more adverse repercussions hitting the region within the next six months. In Kenya, citizens took to social media, under the hashtag #LowerFoodPrices, to vent their frustrations. In response to this, the government reverted indicating that the rising cost was a result of the conflict. While in DRC, inflation of oil, petrol, and gas prices has led to an increase in transport costs for both people and foodstuffs and this threatens CARE’s ongoing projects if the conflict is long-drawn-out. Somalia is currently in the grips of a worsening drought and the conflict in Ukraine makes the situation even more direr. The price of wheat and oil has already risen by 300%. Iman Abdullahi, CARE Somalia Country Director said, “O...