"There's an urgent need to stave off the growing hunger crisis in parts of East Africa."- IRC head

International Rescue Committee (IRC) President and CEO David Miliband on Wednesday visited displaced communities that have been impacted by drought in a village in the Somali region of Ethiopia.

During the visit, the former UK Foreign Secretary said there was an "urgent need to stave off the growing hunger crisis in this part of East Africa."

The severe drought in the Horn of Africa has pushed people to the brink of starvation, destroying crops and killing livestock on which their survival depends.

He urged leaders attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to "address the needs of the people here today," because they are "paying the price of the climate crisis already."

Acute food insecurity is rising fast and spreading across the world.

According to the WFP report, an all-time high of 970 000 people are expected to face catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) and are starving or projected to starve or at risk of deterioration to catastrophic conditions in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen – ten times more than six years ago.