Hailing the holidays as "a season of giving and renewal," and calling the ongoing famine from the drought in the Horn of Africa "heartbreaking," President Obama today announced $113 million in emergency relief aid to provide "urgently needed food, health, shelter, water and assistance needs" to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. It follows the government's previous expenditure of $870 million for relief purposes."The heartbreaking accounts of lives lost and of those struggling to survive remind us of our common humanity and the need to reach out to people in need," President Obama said.
He noted that the famine comes "amid the worst drought the region has seen in 60 years." The latest United Nations data of the impact of the famine show that between 50,000 and 100,000 people may have died across the Horn of Africa since April, with more than half of these children under the age of five.
The US emergency relief funding is in addition to the federal government's work to retool the agriculture economy in the Horn of Africa, through the U.S. Agency for International Development's Feed the Future campaign, the President said.
"Even as we help to meet the emergency needs of the people of this region, we are also investing in their long-term food security," President Obama said.
The President urged Americans to get involved with relief efforts through USAID's social media FWD Campaign.
"To learn more about how you can get involved, please visit http://action.usaid.gov/," he said.
*Photo by Davie Lienemann/White House