On Wednesday 27 April, the European Commission announced that, to help Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya - victims of an unprecedented drought that is causing dramatic food insecurity, aggravated by soaring food prices - the EU will mobilise €348 million this year.
The amount was announced the day before in Geneva at a roundtable discussion that the Commission had co-organised with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
It combines an additional €32 million in emergency humanitarian aid (bringing this support to €108.2 million) with longer-term support to address the root causes of food insecurity, including through climate change adaptation measures.
An additional €231 million in development funds will be used to strengthen resilience and food security (out of the €317.5 million set aside for the three countries for 2021-2024).
The amount of €8.9 million from the Foreign Policy Instrument will go to actions aimed at breaking the climate-conflict cycle in Somalia and sustainable conflict management in Arid Land Ecosystems in Kenya.
“Millions of people are already affected by the drought and need life-saving assistance”, stresses the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, in a statement. Her colleague in International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, adds: “Together with the international community, we need to fund structural policies that address the root causes of food and nutrition crises.” (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)