This archive report was first published on 7 August 2019.
Published on August 7, 2019, the European Commission has mobilised €50 million ($56 million) in emergency humanitarian funding to support drought-hit communities in the Horn of Africa.
The funding, which is part of the EU's efforts to address the severe drought affecting the region, will be used to provide food and other essential needs to affected communities.
According to Christos Stylianides, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, the funding will help extend humanitarian assistance in the affected areas, helping communities ward off the risk of famine.
The funding will be allocated as follows: Somalia will receive $28 million, followed by Ethiopia at $22 million, while Kenya and Uganda will receive $3.3 million and $2.2 million respectively.
The funding will also go towards public health services, treatment of severe malnutrition among toddlers and pregnant women, as well as stipends for sustaining livelihoods.
Most of the targeted communities practice pastoral lifestyle in Kenya's dry north, Uganda's Karamoja region, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
The pledge brings the total EU humanitarian assistance to the region to $410 million since mid-last year when the drought started.
According to the UN Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), about 13 million people require urgent food assistance.
