The scourge of drought in East Africa remains a critical problem. (Photo: www.nbcnews.com)
Hunger and Drought: Africa has always been known for its rigorous battle against hunger and drought. In fact, El Niño weather patterns due to climate change are feared to have shifted the core climate of Africa, thus affecting the continent’s major agrarian economy and subsequently bringing on heightened forms of poverty, death and disease. Right now, a devastating famine, provoked by drought is moving north from Southern Africa, where it has affected more than 13 million lives. Two years of alternating droughts and floods, mismanagement of land and food supplies, political instability, and regional conflicts are being blamed. Across the continent in Gambia, farmers have given up in despair as an acute shortage of rain has crippled productivity.
