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drought

Stephen Jackson of Ireland as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya.
United Nations

Kenya: ‘Whiplash’ between drought and flooding calls for building climate resilience

UN Interviews

Kenya remains on high alert as Tropical Cyclone Hidaya threatens to dump more torrential rains on East African countries, which recently emerged from three years of historic drought. 

The heavy rains have caused deadly flooding and landslides that have killed nearly 400 people across the region since March. 

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Kenya, Stephen Jackson, has been calling for a “push on resilience” as extreme weather events intensify due to climate change. 

Audio
8'59"
Olga Sarrado, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
UN Geneva

After 30 years of fighting, hunger the last straw for Horn of Africa’s most vulnerable: UNHCR

UN Interviews
Survivors of decades of conflict in the Horn of Africa have told the UN how hunger and drought have finally uprooted them from their homes. To help 3.3 million people who’ve been displaced in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, issued an urgent appeal this week for $137 million. UN News's Daniel Johnson spoke to the agency’s Olga Sarrado.
Audio
3'1"
The motorcycle ambulance has significantly reduced the time required to deliver essential and urgent medical assistance to local communities.
© UNFPA/Luis Tato

Motorbike ambulance saves mothers and babies in Kenya: UNFPA

Women

The hardship being felt across the Horn of Africa by the worst drought in 40 years has left many women weak and malnourished. The UN agency dedicated to women’s sexual and reproductive health, UNPA, is helping save mothers’ lives in Kenya, through the donation of a simple but effective way of accessing hard-to-reach areas - a motorbike, to enable safe emergency deliveries in hospital.

Audio
9'42"
Women carry food from a WFP distribution site in Marsabit County in northern Kenya.
© WFP

‘We cannot give up’ on the millions suffering in drought-stricken Horn of Africa, urges WFP official

Humanitarian Aid

Millions of people in the Horn of Africa – a region at the intersection of some of the worst impacts of climate change, recurring humanitarian crises and insecurity – are facing the driest conditions in four decades along with extreme food shortages. The top UN World Food Programme (WFP) official in the region, Michael Dunford, is warning that the situation there is likely to get worse before it improves.