Written question asked by Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party) on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 11 July 2011. It was answered by Andrew Mitchell (Conservative) on Monday, 11 July 2011 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

East Africa: Droughts

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his assessment is of the drought conditions in East Africa; and what steps he is taking to help alleviate the situation.

Answer: The eastern horn of Africa has experienced two consecutive seasons of significantly below-average rainfall, resulting in one of the driest years since 1995. Crops have failed, large numbers of livestock have died, and local cereal prices are very high. Up to 10 million people in the sub-region need humanitarian assistance and emergency levels of acute malnutrition are widespread.On 1 July the UK Government committed to provide 1.36 million people with emergency food assistance and 329,000 malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers supplementary food treatment. We continue to closely monitor the situation and we are calling on other countries in the international community to contribute to the humanitarian response.

Secondary information