As famine spreads across the Horn of Africa, Samaritan's Purse is supplying food, water, and other aid to thousands of hungry families and malnourished children.

Millions of people throughout the Horn of Africa are struggling from a critical food emergency primarily due to the worst drought the area has experienced in decades. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), drought is the most common cause of severe food shortages and is one of the most important triggers of malnutrition and famine.

Child Screening: A Samaritan's Purse team member blogs about our efforts to combat malnutrition

Experts expect the current situation to deteriorate further over the next few months because of the high cost of food, violent conflict in the area, and crop and livestock loss.

The crisis in the Horn of Africa was brought on by two years of drought that is the worst in 60 years. Massive crop failure and loss of livestock have led to extreme food shortages in a region straddling Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia—a region that has been labeled the “triangle of death.”

“It has never been this bad,” a local resident said. “It has never gone this long without rain. But we don’t even expect rain to come until October. Everyone is very bad off—we can’t even keep our animals alive. The women are out all day looking for water and they can’t find any.”

Samaritan’s Purse has a team based in Garissa, Kenya, along the Somalia border, where we have distributed food for more than 1,700 people in the area, including maize, beans, corn-soy blend, cooking oil, and other necessities. As scores of Somali refugees continue to pour into neighboring Kenya, residents of communities are feeling the strain of having to share their limited resources with the refugees. In Liboi hundreds of Somali refugees are awaiting transport to the refugee camps of Dadaab.

In addition to the strain of scarce resources such as food and water, residents of border communities are concerned that the new arrivals may be carrying diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, and measles.




Currently, there are at least 500,000 children across the Horn of Africa suffering from some form of malnutrition. We have screened over 550 children, and found approximately 25 percent suffering from or at risk of severe malnutrition. Over a ton of corn-soy blend has been distributed to families, villages, and health facilities for use in treating malnourished children. We have ordered tents and supplies to set up a malnutrition stabilization center at a hospital in Dadaab.

In some villages, we have found malnutrition rates as high as 65%. Our Mobile Intervention Team screened 126 children under five and pregnant women recently. We distributed 80 packets of ready-to-use therapeutic food in these villages.

Clean water is another dire need. In some areas, only 20 percent of the families have access to safe drinking water. Many people are now forced to walk miles to reach a water source. As populations are shifting toward areas with better access to water, community resources are being severely strained.

“Water is such an issue,” a staff member said. “It’s not unusual for people to walk 10-15 miles for water.”

We are using tanker trucks to haul water to vulnerable villages while we identify longer-term solutions such as drilling boreholes. Over 1 million liters of water have been provided to thousands of people through our tanker truck project.

Our Disease Outbreak Prevention project staff has used purification tablets to treat 140,000 liters of water. These tablets kill microorganisms to prevent cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and other waterborne diseases.

We have also distributed 1,803 hygiene kits and 10,982 bars of soap. In addition to these distributions, we train community members in how to use the kits, hand washing, and other basic hygiene and sanitation practices. Nearly 1,200 families are now benefitting from this program.

In addition, Samaritan's Purse has launched a cash-for-work program in several villages. We have distributed tools to 981 people for use in latrine construction. Not only will this project help with sanitary needs in participating villages, it also gives residents the opportunity to earn an income to buy food for their families

Hundreds of thousands of people without food and water have fled to makeshift camps in eastern Kenya looking for emergency aid. Many of the displaced are refugees from neighboring Somalia, who left their war-torn country in hopes of finding help over the border. Much of Somalia is controlled by a militant group, affiliated with al Qaeda, that has denied that a food shortage exists and threatened to maintain their ban on food aid.

The camps in Kenya are overcrowded, and resources are stretched beyond capacity. Conditions aren’t much better outside the camps. Samaritan’s Purse church partners are finding households facing dire shortages of food and water.

Some of the worst hit counties include Wajir and Garissa, areas considered the focal point of the Somalia refugee influx. In these areas, particularly where Samaritan’s Purse partners are involved, there is limited government assistance and little help from other agencies.

Please pray for the people impacted by malnutrition and starvation, for our staff and church partners as they respond in the Name of Christ, that the conditions that are causing this catastrophic food shortage will end, and for God's help in meeting the overwhelming needs of the region.

Samaritan's Purse , Kenya , Emergency Relief , Hunger and Drought