To the Congressional Hunger Caucus Briefing on The Famine Crisis in the Horn of Africa: U.S. Response and the Challenges Ahead

Mr. Chairman: Thank you for your leadership in bringing us together today to address the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. Your attention and concern is critical.

The drought in the Horn is the worst in 60 years and it is now affecting 12.5 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. It’s both a humanitarian and a security crisis, as famine has been declared in parts of southern Somalia and refugees are pouring across borders into drought-stressed areas of Kenya and Ethiopia.

A few weeks back, I traveled throughout the region, including South Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia. In South Sudan, I felt the joy of 100,000 people celebrating their dream of an independent state. The next day, in Ethiopia, I shared the tragedy of 100,000 Somalis refugees in Dollo Ado, driven from their homes by drought, war, and emerging famine. Families—mostly women cradling children whose glazed-over eyes had already seen a lifetime of hardship—struggled into the camps after their long exodus through the Ogaden desert and received their first nutritious meals in months.