East Africa's Quiet Famine

According to estimates by the United Nations, more than 28 million people in east Africa need immediate food aid. Three countries in the region have emergency level food aid needs-Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. Meanwhile, areas of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda also face crisis level hunger with some households already in emergency conditions. In Somalia, at least 6.2 million people, more half that country's population, need food assistance. In South Sudan, nearly two-thirds of the population requires assistance, and 4.9 million people, about 40 percent of the population, face severe life-threatening hunger. In Sudan more than 5.8 million Sudanese are believed to require assistance, 3.3 million of them in still-embattled Darfur states. The devastating impact of the current famine isn't confined to the hardest hit drought areas. Uganda itself, struggling with the effects of drought in some areas, has had to contend with nearly 800,000 refugees from South Sudan. In 2011, the first U.N.-declared famine since the 1980s occurred in east Africa, affecting more than 10 million people. Six years ago, there was great attention given to that famine. The current famine, despite reaching crisis levels, has not garnered the attention that it deserves.