According to the latest estimates, the current East African famine has killed 10,000 people in Somalia, with another 3 million needing food assistance. Some 3.6 million are in need of food assistance in Kenya, and another 4.5 million in Ethiopia. The number of refugees fleeing from Somalia across the border into Kenya is now nearly 2,000 per day, and, given the prevalence of conflict in Somalia, this is causing huge security issues.
There are now estimated to be 800,000 people in refugee camps in the region, most of them in Kenya. The drought has led to increased conflict between cattle herders, and some 20 people were killed recently in a raid by Ethiopian cattle rustlers on Kenyan pastoralists near the Ethiopia-Kenya border. Clashes are likely to increase in frequency and severity as food and water become more scarce.
According to a report issued by the Famine Early Warning System Network, “food security conditions for poor and very poor households are expected to deteriorate to Stressed and Crisis levels beginning in July, at least through September.” The Somali militant group Al Shabaab has in the past two years prevented aid groups from providing relief, and this has exacerbated the suffering. Now the leaders of the group seem to be divided on whether to allow aid.