Greater Horn of Africa Region: Humanitarian Snapshot (March - April 2018)

Overview

In April and early May 2018, large-scale floods affected more than 1 million people across the Greater Horn of Africa, impacting more than 700,000 people in Somalia, over 311,000 in Kenya, and at least 165,000 people in Ethiopia. Across the region, floods destroyed and damaged houses, schools, health facilities and water and sanitation (WASH) infrastructure, disrupted livelihoods and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. There are concerns that the floods could exacerbate the spread of water-borne diseases, including cholera. In addition to new flood-related displacement in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, conflict between ethnic Oromos from West Gujji and Gedeos from the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ (SNNP) region in Ethiopia resulted in large scale displacement from both sides in April.

The region continues to experience a major food insecurity crisis, with Somalia and South Sudan both still at risk of famine. At the end of April 2018, some 23 million people were estimated to be severely food insecure in the Greater Horn of Africa and over 1.6 million children were severely malnourished.

While food insecurity has improved overall in the region compared to February 2018, including due to seasonal trends, both Sudan and South Sudan have seen food security deteriorate since the same period in 2017, by 30 and 15 per cent respectively.

Communicable diseases remain prevalent, including in regions bordering neighbouring countries. So far in 2018, some 5,000 cases of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) and/or cholera, and over 3,100 cases of measles have been recorded in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan. However, since February, the number of active cholera/AWD outbreaks across the region has decreased from 16 to 9, with a reduction from 10 to 5 in Kenya and 4 to 2 in Somalia.