Djibouti: Emergency alert spotlights sharp hunger spike

“Urgent actions are more than necessary to reduce consumption deficits and vulnerability and strengthen the resilience of affected households to prevent their food situation from shifting to higher levels of severe hunger,” according to new analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) index.

The latest data reflects a significant increase from the previous May to June period, the report found.

Most of the affected people are refugees living in the Ali Addeh and Holl-Holl camps where households remain largely dependent on food assistance. Nearly 70 per cent of their population, over 21,000 people, have been classified under the crisis level or above, the report said.

Read the full report here.

El Niño, food price hikes and inflation

The Horn of Africa nation of one million people faces multiple challenges that are affecting food security, with the latest report spotlighting three main contributors that will spur the spike in hunger over the coming six months:

• Climate hazards: Looming El Niño conditions, including irregular seasonal rains, extreme temperature increases and droughts, will cause water points to dry up and reduce the last available pastures for livestock, drastically reducing agricultural production and pastoral activities
• High food prices: Disruptions to regional trade flows and geopolitical tensions around the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait are impacting the costs of food imports, disrupting supply chains and reducing product availability in local markets
• Economic shocks: Inflation is suffocating the already precarious purchasing power of rural and peri-urban households, limiting their access to food, leading to higher production costs and a slowdown in economic growth at the national level

Hunger trackers

The scope of food assistance provided so far remains generally insufficient, the ICP report found.

As such, a large proportion of aid recipients are experiencing significant food consumption deficits and very high rates of acute malnutrition. 

A network of humanitarian organizations that tracks hunger and famine conditions around the world, IPC was established during the devastating 2004 famine in Somalia to create a standardised scale for measuring food security and nutrition. 

Its goal is to issue warnings to enable the prevention of widespread starvation and famine. 

Read our explainer on how famine is classified here.