Thread by @vickyford

Thread 1/10

I have just returned from Afar in eastern Ethiopia, a part of S&E Ethiopia, Somalia & N Kenya that has been decimated by climate change driven drought.

I am finding it hard to process what I witnessed or the magnitude and speed at which this tragedy is unfolding.

2/10
We drove for two hours along a “dirt track” to reach an isolated community - but even that description is overly positive - if that was a “track” then my local country lane is a motorway.

There is nothing -no buildings, no communications.

The riverbed is dry.

3/10
Before the drought this land was teeming with cattle, goats, camels etc. Pastoralists relied on their animals for food & income. Now the land is brown & most of the animals have died.

All they have is a weekly visit from a mobile health unit held under the only large tree

4/10
@UNICEF funded by #UKAID give sachets to mothers of malnourished children. Nearly every child needed sachets.
The tiny one-a-day treatments of fortified peanut paste can be life savers. But only if there are not other complications - many also had coughs, prob pneumonia.

5/10 Mothers told me they know the life of pastoralists is no longer possible. They want to find new livelihoods & new ways of living.

Afar has possibilities for new opportunities, but this needs long term investment - very challenging with war raging next door in Tigray.

6/10 To unlock opportunities education is needed, but one in four children in Afar drop out of school before end of year one. That’s of the children that even start school.

At a school near the main road I met kids desperate to learn…

7/10
.. but conflict and climate change means that many children become displaced when families are forced to move on. #UKAid has been helping @UNICEF with accelerated learning for those who have missed out. This clever solar radio can also be used to deliver tailored lessons.

8/10
24 million people are affected by drought in Ethiopia - three times more than 6 months ago. The acceleration of the crisis was brought home when I visited the only hospital.
Many health facilities were destroyed when the conflict tipped into this region last year …

9/10
Last year the hospital used just 6 paediatric beds.

@MSF have just erected a tented extension to the hospital with 100 intensive beds for malnourished children. It’s nearly full already.

#UKAid has provided a much needed ambulance to @WHO for this hospital.

10/10 In this drought, millions of people are hanging on to life by the finest of threads. One more shock & many will die.

This year the UK will provide £156m of humanitarian aid to E Africa & more in development aid - but MUCH more is needed.

Other countries need to step up.