Worst drought in 60 years: 12 million Africans face ‘fight for survival’

July 8, 2011 – WAJIR, Kenya – At first glance, the massive drought which has swept across Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia appears to be a crisis caused entirely by nature. As we traveled north through Kenya into one of the worst-hit areas, the lush green of the Nairobi suburbs disappeared into gray sand and dry earth. In three hours, I counted the carcasses of 27 cattle by the roadside, and one giraffe – apparently killed because the land could not sustain them. The striking images of the landscape seem to represent a deceptively simple assessment of the drought: the dirty work of Mother Nature. ”The only reason for all the suffering in this region is the lack of rain,” one desperate doctor told me as he lifted up yet another severely malnourished baby so that he could be weighed. The doctor is wrong. Witness the outbreak of famine or drought and you’ll usually see that there has been an outbreak of war nearby. In this case, the lawlessless of war-torn Somalia is driving people into neighboring Kenya. In Ethiopia, high inflation and fast-rising food prices have also forced people out. Many of those refugees have been competing with the recently killed animals that we saw on our journey for water and food. Consider that and the deadly cocktail behind this current crisis doesn’t look so basic. Human hands are all over this. Kenya’s refugee camps are packed. Dadaab, the biggest refugee camp in the world, was originally built for 90,000 people but now has 380,000 refugees, UNICEF officials told Reuters this week. About 10,000 more stream in each week. But although the cause of the crisis is complex, the consequence is simple – painfully simple. This year’s drought and “pre-famine” do appear to be particularly bad. The United Nations believes that it might lead to a “human tragedy of unimaginable proportions” – a grave warning indeed. Charities say that the world must act now to avoid a catastrophe. -MSNBC

Favorite

2 members favorited this

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by illuminated-dj on July 10, 2011 at 12:12am: in my view this is being done by design through weather manipulation,war etc..you can buy machines online whhich take water out of the air and they even work in desert conditions so i dont understand why they dont have them in these countries.all done through corruption.paying off warlords and depopulation.all part of a big plan

Comment by K. Spears-Hartford on July 9, 2011 at 11:26pm: I feel quite unable to help these people! Wish there was some way to get many of them out of there, & into areas where there are forests, running streams or brooks, with safe water to drink, and safe places to sleep, near people who would care about these people. I believe there are areas where these people could be relocated to, which would lengthen & improve their lives, without taking away anything from others' lives! There are many forested areas, which no one is living in, on the North American continent, that our gov't is "holding onto" and will not share, even with American citizens! Why? I could only guess, from what I've learned about that, so far. But is there a good reason for anyone to keep people from resources that The Creator designed this planet to provide? No. It is only selfishness, and pride, and wanting power & control over people who are not doing any harm to those "in power," which leads those "in power" to want these common people to just die. They seem to have no compassion for anyone else but themselves or their "own." How horrible!!

I am not so sure the UN or the organizations who 'say' they are 'helping' are *truly" helping these people. I believe many of the groups, & even some executives at ( & maybe owners of) such companies as MSNBC or BBC, do not truly care. Maybe some of the reporters care; but ... where is the money to back up the concern they appear to have, for these dying people?

They are reporting this; and that seems good. But, if one were to ask them if they would put up money to get some of these people to better areas to live in, or provide medical care, medicines, good food, clean water, clothes, a place to sleep, I think we'd find that the executives / owners of these large media outlets would have to admit "they" will not "help" from their own pocketbooks (though they have more than enough "financial means" to do that). But what I am sharing is only through my own observation of what has been done in the past. They send reporters out to report these terrible conditions that extremely-poor people are finding themselves facing, with their children dying, yet ... the same news service companies "will not" do as much as they "could do," to alleviate a good amount of the suffering. They have connections & resources, to help. I have not seen them do all they could do. ( my personal opinion)

... I truly do wish I could go to the refugee camp to help these people in some practical way.

But I cannot pay my way to do it, nor do I have the money to send to help in any honest effort to benefit them.

I can pray! But lest someone here figure that I am yet another all-words-and-no-action "Christian," who thinks praying will accomplish much, please do not judge me unless you can say, in truth, that you have walked in my shoes, along the same path I've walked, for some time, now.

We (our family) "live" on prayer, feeding on The Word of God, which (at times) is our only source of encouragement! There are some who think we are weird & who do not understand. I explain to them "why" we do what we do.

YHVH God has gotten us through, each month, by miracles He alone can work out! He has shown us ways we can cut back even more than we had ever done, in the past! There are ways to live on very little, but many do not know this, and have lived "spoiled" for much of their lives (in the USA)! Please, please, pray for these people who are refugees!! Am glad the story was shared, but I wish there was something I could do, personally, to help these suffering people in a practical way. Since I do not see anything else I can do, at this point, I "can" Pray!! And I will....