International organizations warn that about 58.1 million people are facing severe food insecurity in the Horn of Africa. However, the fear of food insecurity is not only present in Africa, but is also a "ghost" haunting many places in the world.

A joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) for East Africa shows that of the 58 million food insecure people, 30.5 million come from six of the eight IGAD member countries, including Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda; the remaining people come from Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.

According to FAO and IGAD, the majority of food insecure people are in the Democratic Republic of Congo with 23.4 million people, followed by Sudan with 17.7 million people. The two organizations stressed that the level of food insecurity after heavy rains and floods caused by the El Nino climate phenomenon in the Horn of Africa is getting worse.

To address this urgent problem, organizations are mobilizing all international resources. In late February, the United Nations announced that it had allocated $17 million to help alleviate the worsening hunger situation caused by the drought in northern Ethiopia. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the money, drawn from the Central Emergency Response Fund, reflected deep concern about the impact of a new El Nino-induced drought affecting large areas of Ethiopia including Afar, Amhara and Tigray.

MY HANH