I just read an Aug 2nd UN press briefing on the situation in the Horn of Africa that had some pretty striking statistics. It really drove home that though things are bad now, without proper intervention they can get much worse very quickly. Here are a few things that jumped out at me:
- more than 40,000 Somalis arrived at Dadaab refugee camp in July (highest one-month total in camp’s 20 year history)
- from April to June, tens of thousands of people had died in Southern Somalia because of joint crisis of drought and increased fighting within the country (almost half were under 5 years old)
- over 2.3 million accutely malnurished children in the Horn of Africa (over half a million of whom will die if they do not get help in the next few weeks)
- half of all Somalis have acute malnutrition
Please consider giving through the link below to help stave the tide of this spreading crisis. To get more information please visit the ELCA Disaster Response page on the Horn of Africa Drought. You can also read the whole UN Press Briefing.
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Gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response allow the church to respond globally in times of need. Donate now.
