Category: Governance

UNITED NATIONS— The northeast Africa drought threatens to be one of the worst climate-induced emergencies in the area in the last 40 years, UN humanitarians said.

“People in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have endured three consecutive poor rainy seasons,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. “The latest forecasts indicate that the March to May rains may be average to below-average.”

If the rains are scarce, the drought risks becoming one of the worst climate-induced emergencies in the last 40 years in the Horn of Africa, with millions of people facing severe water shortages and going hungry due to the devastating drought in the region, the office said.

OCHA said dry water sources across the region force people to walk long distances to find water. Conflict over scarce resources increases the risk of violence and abuse against children and women.

The office said because of water scarcity, food insecurity is at a record high. Between 13.1 million and 14.1 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia struggle to put food on the table every day.

“The prolonged drought will leave more than 5.7 million children acutely malnourished in these three countries in 2022, 1.7 million of them severely acutely malnourished,” the office said. “Humanitarian partners are scaling up the response and have assisted 1.6 million people in Somalia, over 2.7 million people in Ethiopia and more than 830,000 people in Kenya.”

The office and its humanitarian partners seek 4.4 billion U.S. dollars to provide life-saving assistance and protection to about 30 million people in the three countries this year, but funding is meager.

OCHA urgently calls on the international community to step up support to organizations responding to the drought across the Horn of Africa.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

China’s Special Envoy on the Middle East Zhai Jun Tuesday discussed the political crisis in the country and bilateral relations with the head of the Sovereign Council and the leader of the National Umma Party (NUP).

China, which had strong relations with the former regime, is now renewing contacts with Sudanese officials after three years of the al-Bashir’s collapse.

Speaking to the media after a meeting with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Jun said he stressed China keenness to develop bilateral relations in all fields.

Also, the visiting Chinese diplomat and al Burhan exchanged views on the political transition process in Sudan.

“I assured His Excellency that China supports all parties to dialogue and give priority to the interests of the nation and to achieve consensus in a way that preserves the interests of the country and achieves stability,” he said

“We hope that the international community will play a positive role in the political transition process and provide support and assistance,” he added.

Chinese diplomats have always underscore the need to ensure that international relations are based on the principle of non-interference in internal affairs.

His apparent call for a Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue fits with the UN-AU process to facilitate discussions between the Sudanese stakeholders to reach an agreement on the transition that has been suspended after the military coup last October.

In another development, Jun met with Fadlallah Burma, UNP acting leader to discuss with him an initiative his party made to end the current political stalemate.

The NUP issued a statement saying that the meeting dealt with issues of common concern, the current situation in the country, and bilateral relations between the National Umma Party and the Chinese Communist Party.

Burma further said that his party seeks to address the Sudanese crisis through internal consensus that achieves stability, avoids further collapse of the country, and restores a civilian government that achieves reforms paving the way for democratic rule in the country.

Source: Sudan Tribune