NAIROBI, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) — At least a million people in Kenya are struggling with food insecurity and in need of humanitarian assistance, the country’s National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said on Monday.
NDMA noted in a report released in the Kenyan capital Nairobi that the affected people are in the country’s 23 out of the 47 counties, which are classified as arid and semi-arid.
The authority observed that the number of children aged six to 59 months requiring treatment for acute malnutrition dropped to 760,488 in August from 847,932 in February.
Meanwhile, the total of pregnant and breastfeeding women requiring treatment for acute malnutrition reached 112,401. NDMA revealed that households sold their harvests to cover other costs, often at the expense of maintaining healthy eating and chronic challenges associated with stunting.
In July, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) noted in a report that the number of food-insecure people in the Horn of Africa stands at 66.7 million.
Among them, 39.1 million were from six of eight IGAD member states, namely Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.
