UN Refugee Chief Says Horn of Africa Drought is the Worst Humanitarian Crisis in the World

UPDATE: The United Nations officially declared Somalia’s food crisis a famine in several parts of the country.   This means that acute malnutrition rates are over thirty percent, with peaks of fifty percent in certain areas of the country’s South.

Video updates from Save the Children, UNICEF, and WorldVision are in our video gallery--here is the latest from Save the Children:

Earlier post:

A covergence of drought, rising food costs, and conflict has driven over a quarter of a million people--now quickly approaching half a million--to the Dabaab refugee camps just across the border with Somalia in Northern Kenya.  Ten million people live in the drought-striken area, which lies at the crossroads of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.   Many have not harvested crops in over two years, making this the worst drought to have hit the region in over half a century.  United Nation’s Refugee Chief Antonio Guterres, touring what is now the largest refugee camp in the world, says it is "the worst humanitarian disaster in the world."

SpaceforGood will continue to collect video from nonprofit and humanitarian groups working in the region in our Horn of Africa Drought video gallery.  We will not be featuring video from news agencies.

Here is an an urgent appeal today from UNICEF's Regional Emergency Advisor for Eastern and Southern Africa, Robert McCarthy: