IRC head visits drought-hit region of Ethiopia

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. 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.

David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said "The big message for the leaders meeting in Egypt that comes out of the situation on the ground here, is that if this is to be a truly African COP, an African conference of the parties, then it needs to be a COP that addresses the needs of people here today, because the people of this region are paying the price of the climate crisis already."

According to the WFP report, an all-time high of 970 000 people are expected to face catastrophic hunger 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.