SITUATION UPDATE
The drought in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) region of Kenya—and broader Horn of Africa—has caused people to leave their homes and arrive in new areas seeking assistance and livelihoods. In Garissa County alone, more than 205,014 people (34,169 households) have arrived in different areas in search of services and assistance, according to an International Organization for Migration (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) assessment¹. Meanwhile, an estimated 44,000 asylum seekers arrived in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp between January and November 2022, the majority from neighbouring Somalia, according to UNHCR.
Below-average rains continued in the ASAL region in November 2022, with much of the north-western, northern, and eastern pastoral areas, as well as marginal agricultural areas, recording less than 55 percent of the 30-year rainfall average, according to FEWSNET. In pastoral areas, poor vegetation and long trekking distances are causing poor livestock body conditions and well below-average milk production, while in marginal agricultural areas, late planting and below-average rainfall is raising concern that many crops may not reach maturity. Dwindling resources have increased tensions and conflict, as pastoralist communities travel further in search of food and water, leading to intercommunal clashes.
Humanitarian organizations reached at least 1.6 million people with life-saving and life-sustaining assistance from October 2021 to November 2022, including 1.5 million in 2022 alone. At least 1.2 million people (including 1.1 million in 2022) received access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene items, or hygiene promotion initiatives.
About 851,000 people were reached with food and livelihood assistance, including agricultural inputs and cash transfers (including 775,000 people in 2022), while around 197,000 children under age 5 and pregnant and lactating women were treated for malnutrition between October 2021 and November 2022 (including 169,000 in 2022).
Some 319,000 people were reached with health services, including mobile clinics and sensitization programmes. Humanitarian partners also reached 139,000 children impacted by the drought with education services (including 136,000 in 2022), while 15,000 children were reached with services to protect their safety, dignity and well-being and 196,000 children were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella.
However, with only US$185 million out of the required $359 million received from donors by the end of November, the response continued to fall far short of needs. By the end of November, just 61 per cent of the people targeted under the revised Flash Appeal had received assistance, and humanitarian partners urgently required more funding to increase the response in drought-affected areas. Only two sectors—Food Security and Livelihoods (74 per cent) and Protection (58 per cent)— were more than 50 per cent funded, while Education (7 per cent), Health (16 per cent), WASH (37 per cent) and Nutrition (38 per cent) had all received less than 40 per cent of the funding needed.
Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs