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The number of people experiencing alarming hunger, severe levels of food insecurity and malnutrition has increased to 30 million across north-eastern Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. Famine has been declared in South Sudan and is likely to be already happening in parts of northeast Nigeria, while Yemen and Somalia are on the brink.

This unprecedented crisis is human-made. Every famine is. It represents either a catastrophic human failure or a political choice.

But, the grim fact that famine is always human-made also means that we have the power to prevent and end it.

Right now…

• In South Sudan, 4.9 million people are dangerously hungry, including 100,000 already in famine. Oxfam has helped over 600,000 people with food, water and protection. We are now scaling up to address the thousands of lives at risk from deadly hunger.
• In Yemen, 17 million people are dangerously hungry. Oxfam has so far reached 1 million people.
• In Somalia, nearly 3 million people are dangerously hungry. We have just launched a humanitarian response to initially help at least 20,000 people, with the aim of expanding it to help 200,000 people in the next 12 months.
• In Nigeria, 4.7 million people are dangerously hungry, with around 44,000 people in famine-like conditions. We have helped 245,000 people and our intention is to help up to 500,000 people in 2017.

Read more about Oxfam’s response here.

The two largest catalysts of this wide-spread hunger are ongoing conflict, in South Sudan, Yemen and Nigeria, and climate-change fuelled drought in Somalia.

Conflict has forced many people to leave their homes and communities, thereby losing access to food, fields, jobs and markets. Agriculture and trade have been disrupted, preventing people from producing the food they need, stopping food markets from functioning and disrupting the supply of aid. Those engaged in the conflict should be held accountable if they have directly or indirectly restricted civilian access to food.

Halima*, a mother of five from Nigeria, waits with her children on the side of a street in the town of Banki – an area that has been set up as a camp for people displaced by Boko Haram. She said they stole all her cattle, and she is waiting for the return of her husband from whom she has been separated from. Photo: Sam Tarling/Oxfam.

Persistent drought in Somalia has led to devastating shortages of food and water, affecting people, animals and crops. This drought and its effects have been worsened by climate change which is fuelled by humans – the rains have been replaced with higher temperatures and drier conditions. Higher temperatures because of climate change mean that water evaporates from the land and from the leaves of plants a lot faster, creating drier conditions and intensifying the impact of the lack of rain.

It is ultimately the responsibility of governments to provide for their citizens, to ensure their right to life and food. When this responsibility cannot be met, the international community must step in. But, often the international response is too late, even when warning signs have been known for months.

The international community should have responded earlier. Human intervention could have prevented things from getting this bad, but we can still prevent things from getting worse.

South Sudan has been an independent nation for five years, and has been engaged in civil war for over three of them.

A group of young, creative activists are calling for ceasefire, and are promoting peace through art with their campaign ‘Ana Taban’.

A mural in Juba with the message ‘fire bullets of peace’.

Jacob Bul, a South Sudanese creative, is a co-founder of the campaign.

“Ana Taban, the name of our campaign, is a phrase in Arabic that people often use in South Sudan. It means ‘I’m tired’. Tired of war, tired of conflict situation. Our idea was to host arts-based community events – including performances and street art – to spread messages of peace and reconciliation. No one refuses to be entertained so, if you put a message in it, people will listen.

We settled on the theme of reconciliation… we started training other artists. Now, there are 47 of us: artists, musicians, spoken word artists and painters.

A mural, described on the Ana Taban Facebook page as the following: What are the people ‘Taban’ of? Poverty, tribalism, violence, hunger, corruption, oppression, injustice, ignorance. Photo: Ana Taban Facebook page.

We recently put on a show in Jebel Suk [‘market’ in Arabic], an area where fighting was really intense in July. A lot of the houses were burned down and the market was looted. Many people lost everything. We set up in an open space and put on a show including comedy, music and drama. Slowly by slowly [a local way of saying bit by bit] more and more people came to watch what we were doing. I would guess we had almost 1,000 spectators.

We performed a song that we wrote called “Malesh,” which means “sorry”. It’s not in our culture to apologize, but, to move forward, we South Sudanese need to accept the fact that we have done a lot of bad things to each other. So we said sorry for the loss of life, for the children sleeping under trees, for the women who’ve been raped and for the babies born in the PoC [Protection of Civilian sites, refugee camps on UN premises where an estimated 200,000 people are living]. The country doesn’t deserve this. When people listened to that song, I saw smiles on their faces. The healing process starts with moments like this.

Riya from Ana Taban sharing a touching, personal story on tribalism at Ana Taban’s open mic night. Photo: Ana Taban Twitter account.

Another of our projects involves a series of murals across Juba. People stop to see what we are doing and it gives us an opportunity to talk. These conversations plant seeds for people to think differently about our country and each other.

Our particular aim is to change the minds of young people. In South Sudan, the youth represent 70 percent of the population. Such a small number of people are messing everything up. If we could unite that 70 percent and get them to take responsibility, we’d have enough will to restore the country.”

The campaign was launched last September, at a time when the number of South Sudanese refugees seeking shelter in neighbouring countries reached over 1 million. The art around the capital city, Juba, is tangible proof that civilians are deeply unhappy with the state of their country and are fighting for change.

As a result of this ongoing conflict and violence, parts of South Sudan have been declared in a state of famine. 4.9 million people are dangerously hungry. Oxfam is providing emergency food, and water and sanitation services to help people avoid diseases like cholera and diarrhea, which can lead to malnutrition and prove fatal. Oxfam, working with local partner organisations, provides emergency food and works with vulnerable people to produce their own food and other income, claim their rights, flee violence, find safety and access aid. Oxfam and others are working to preposition supplies ahead of the rainy season as the weather will make it even more difficult for vulnerable people to access aid.

We desperately need your help. You could be a part of the solution to this massive humanitarian crisis. Donate now to save lives.

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In Somaliland, the threat of famine looms large. Drought has forced hundreds of thousands out of their homes in search of food, water, and medicine. These are their stories.

Sabaad Mohammud Mussa, 23, with eight-year-old Saeeda, five-year-old Nasra, and three-year-old Mohammad at her temporary home in the Barbayaal Ciyou Settlement in the Sanaag region of Somaliland. Photo: Petterik Wiggers/Oxfam

Sabaad Mohammud Mussa (23) portions out a meal of injera bread, rice, and tea to her three young children, all under the age of eight. This will be the only meal they eat all day, so they will have to make it last. Mussa, who is raising her children on her own at the moment, has enough food to sustain them for four days. After that, she says, she’s not sure what they will do.

In the village of Wandabeley, she and her husband once raised 30 camels and 800 goats, which they traded for food and money. However, in the last three months, starvation and illness have whittled their livestock down to three camels and 15 goats.

“When we needed money, we used to sell one camel and buy the things we needed,” she says. “Now we have almost no camels and therefore, no savings, no income, and nothing to eat.”

For the sake of her children, she was forced to make a hard decision. While her husband ventured off in search of fresh water and grass to keep their remaining animals alive, Mussa brought her children to the Garadag district in the Sanaag region of Somaliland. Mussa hasn’t seen her husband in eight months and because she has no phone, she has not been able to get in touch with him.

Families like hers who are settled in Garadag are luckier than most as they have access to a school and a clinic for women and children. Oxfam partners Candlelight and Havoyoco are providing people with clean water, sanitation, and cash transfers for food and medicine. And because of that, the district, which had a population of 12,200 in 2014, has seen an influx of 1,000 families since the drought began.

Mussa is one of more than nearly 3 million people who are dangerously hungry in Somalia.

Awad Ali, 87, left his home in Scalid Sigoter for the Barbayaal Ciyou Settlement. Photo: Petterik Wiggers/Oxfam

Awad Ali, a wiry 87-year-old with a henna-flecked beard, stays in the same Barbayaal Ciyou Settlement as Mussa. “I have seen many droughts in my lifetime,” he says. “This is the worst one.”

Fatuma Jama, 60, is settled in Fadigaab, a village in Somaliland that has taken in hundreds of internally displaced families. Photo: Petterik Wiggers/Oxfam

Fatuma Jama (60) lives in Fadigaab, a village nine miles from Garadag. The water there is becoming undrinkable. She says the salty water has afflicted her family with flu and diarrhea. She is not alone; many people in the village are sick and the nearest hospital is in Burao, which is more than 120 miles away.

Jama comes from a family of herders who used to own 300 sheep. Between July and August 2016, their sheep start dying off due to lack of pastures, until they were left with only two. “We have never seen such drought,” she says. “The richest man is now poor, and the poor have become poorer.”

Before the drought, Jama’s grandchildren were able to attend school. Now, there’s no money for food, let alone education. She says there is nothing for them to do besides help with chores, like fetching water. Her 11-year-old granddaughter, Fardhuz Mohammed, hasn’t been to school in six months and she says she misses reading and seeing her friends.

Jama’s eyesight has recently worsened to the point where she has trouble seeing. “I don’t know what is going to happen if the rains don’t come,” she says.

For now, they pray for rain.

Some of the names in this story have been changed to protect the security of the individuals.

Oxfam’s humanitarian response to the crisis in Somalia started this week. Our immediate plan is to help at least 20,000 people initially by providing clean water, sanitation and cash to buy food, and to reach a further 200,000 people with a longer-term response over the next 12 months.

Help us kick off and extend our humanitarian response by donating today.

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