Day: April 19, 2022

JOHANNESBURG, As the cost of last week’s floods, which badly affected KwaZulu-Natal Province, reached billions of rands, South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, declared a National State of Disaster last night.

The cabinet met in a special session Sunday night and decided to declare a National State of Disaster, Ramaphosa said in his televised address. “The primary responsibility to coordinate and manage the disaster is assigned to the national sphere of government, working closely together with provincial governments and municipalities.”

Last week, a provincial state of disaster was declared in KwaZulu-Natal.

The implications, consequences and the damage were wide, reaching beyond KwaZulu-Natal, said the president, adding that, the damage to the Port of Durban had far-reaching consequences, and that is why the cabinet decided to declare a National State of Disaster.

The Port of Durban – one of the biggest and busiest port terminals on the continent, and an important part of the country’s economy – has been severely damaged. Access to the port has been disrupted by extensive damaged to the Bayhead Road, which links the port to the rest of the country, according to the president.

While one billion Rand (68 million U.S. dollars) was immediately available, the matter would be taken to parliament, to ask for more resources, said Ramaphosa.

KwaZulu-Natal has recently experienced the worst floods since 1987, which killed almost 440 people and severely damaged houses, businesses, roads and bridges.

It is estimated that more than 40,000 people have been displaced, the president said. “This is a humanitarian disaster that calls for a massive and urgent relief effort.”

To address the unfolding humanitarian crisis, the first priority would be providing urgent humanitarian relief, and the second priority would be providing rehousing to displaced people and reconstruction and rebuilding, he added.

Source: Nam News Network

GENEVA — The World Food Program warns an estimated 20 million people in drought-affected parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia could face catastrophic levels of hunger if the region is hit with a fourth consecutive year of drought.

The rains have failed to come to the Horn of Africa nearly a month into the current rainy season, which lasts through May. The past three years of drought have taken a heavy toll. The World Food Program reports crop failure in Ethiopia has plunged 7.2 million people into acute hunger and killed more than a million livestock.

The situation is no better in Kenya, where escalating drought has left more than three million people short of food, including half a million who are facing emergency levels of hunger. In Somalia, the WFP says six million people, or 40 percent of the population, are food insecure, with more than 80,000 on the brink of famine.

Speaking from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the WFP regional director for East Africa, Michael Dunford, says the number of hungry people could spiral from an estimated 14 million to 20 million, if the rains fail to come yet again.

“The situation is bad. It continues to deteriorate. We are desperate for these rains to succeed,” he said. “But even if they do … these populations are exhausted. The water sources are exhausted. The livestock are dying. The crops are failing. And we are heading to a very severe situation unless we are able to pull it back from the precipice.”

Dunford says there is anecdotal evidence that children already are dying from malnutrition-related causes because they are not able to get the nutritional feeding that could save their lives.

He says the WFP is severely underfunded. It has received 13 percent of a required $370 million. Since that appeal was launched in January, he says the number of people needing help has increased, as have the costs. The WFP now requires $473 million to scale up its operations over the next six months.

“Funding gap means that WFP is having to prioritize in such a way that the prevention of malnutrition, we are now going to have to focus primarily on the treatment,” Dunford said. “And at some point, even these programs will not have sufficient funding if the current trends continue. And we will have to focus exclusively on humanitarian feeding programs.”

Dunford says the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine is compounding the problems in the Horn of Africa, with food and fuel prices soaring to unprecedented highs.

Source: Voice of America