With mil­lions hun­gry in East Africa, OXFAM is now call­ing on emer­gency dona­tions of aid to the drought stricken region. OXFAM says that the drought is really in it’s fifth year.

Rains are due to come next month, if that does hap­pen the next har­vest for the region is in early 2010. Until then, the mil­lions of peo­ple in East Africa will have to depend on dona­tions of food to survive.

From the New York Times, this Reuters piece relays OXFAM’s state­ment on the emergency.

Launch­ing a $9.5 mil­lion (6 mil­lion pounds) appeal, it said the sit­u­a­tion was being wors­ened by high food prices and con­flict. The most badly hit nations are Kenya, Ethiopia, Soma­lia and Uganda.

Mal­nu­tri­tion is now above emer­gency lev­els in some areas and hun­dreds of thou­sands of valu­able cat­tle are dying.

“This is the worst human­i­tar­ian cri­sis Oxfam has seen in east Africa for over ten years,” Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa Direc­tor, said in a statement.

He said failed and unpre­dictable rains were ever more com­mon in the region, and that broader cli­mate change meant wet sea­sons were becom­ing shorter. Droughts have increased from once a decade to every two or three years.

“In Wajir, north­ern Kenya, almost 200 dead ani­mals were recently found around one dried-up water source,” Lomas said.

“Peo­ple are sur­viv­ing on two litres of water a day in some places — less water than a toi­let flush. The con­di­tions have never been so harsh or so inhos­pitable, and peo­ple des­per­ately need our help to survive.”

Some 3.8 mil­lion Kenyans, a tenth of the pop­u­la­tion, need emer­gency aid, Oxfam said, partly because food prices have risen to 180 per­cent above average.

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