Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the food security situation in East Africa.

Across East Africa over 68 million people require humanitarian aid due to a combination of pressures including an unprecedented fourth consecutive season of failed rains, conflict (including the impacts of Russia's invasion of Ukraine), COVID-19 and flooding. Of this number, over 51 million people face severe food insecurity, of which 700,000 are facing famine-like conditions in South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia. In the Horn of Africa, as a result of the drought, an estimated 26 million people are forecast to face severe levels of food insecurity by February 2023. Recent data from the Bay region in Somalia projects that in the absence of timely, scaled-up, multi-sectoral assistance, famine is likely to occur between October to December this year. Across the Horn of Africa an unprecedented fourth consecutive season of failed rains is causing a region-wide crisis. Meteorological agencies forecast warnings of further failed rains between October and December this year, which risk deepening the already critical humanitarian situation. Severe humanitarian needs will persist into 2023.