Northern Kenya Update

NAIROBI (AFP) - International aid agencies stepped up appeals for urgent intervention in drought-hit northern Kenya, warning of mass starvation in the region where at least 40 people have died of hunger and related illness amid fears of a major famine.
At least three foreign relief organizations -- the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Action Against Hunger (AAH) and World Vision -- said immediate emergency assistance is needed to help some 2.5 million people survive the crisis.
A day after local Red Cross and hospital officials said the death toll from malnutrition had risen to 40 since the beginning of December, the groups described the situation as "grim," "dramatic" and "disastrous" for the largely pastoralist population amid widespread livestock fatalities.
The IFRC urged donors to contribute 12.7 million dollars (10.5 million euros) to help deal with "a critical lack of water for both human and animal consumption across many districts" where it said the mortality rate for livestock, essential to the nomadic peoples there, could surge from 30 to 70 percent.
"Communities may soon be wiped out since they depend entirely on livestock," the Red Cross said on Thursday. "Given the dramatic situation, it is vital that the international community respond by supporting the government of Kenya appeal for food assistance."
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has declared the situation a "national disaster," ordered the military to assist in food and water distribution and appealed over Christmas for 100 million dollars (84 million euros) to fill a shortfall in relief funding.
Despite limited responses to that call, the severity of situation has worsened, according to AAH and World Vision.
In a statement, World Vision described the dire conditions as a "grim food crisis" with an "urgent need for interventions addressing nutritional requirements for vulnerable populations."
"The situation in Mandera has really gone from bad to disastrous," said Kelly Delaney, a nutritionist with AAH, referring to one of the worst-hit regions in Kenya's far northeast on the Somali border.
Emergency feeding centers in the area saw a 29-percent increase in the number of children admitted in the first three weeks of December over the entire month of November and many of those "are more severely malnourished than those the organization has seen in the past," AAH said in a statement.
"More international support is essential," it said, noting that the mass deaths of cattle, goats and camels were a dire indication of worse times to come.
"This population depends on cattle for food, transportation and economic viability," it said. "Cattle dying now means that children will die months from now and families will be left with no economic viability or way to feed themselves."
On Wednesday, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) issued a similar alert, saying that the situation across three drought-stricken countries in the Horn of Africa -- Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia -- was critical.
About 6.5 million people in northeast Kenya, neighboring southern Somalia and southeast Ethiopia are threatened by the drought, according to the US-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS).
Source: AFP, Jan. 05,2006