NAIROBI, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) \u2014 Four counties in Kenya\u2019s arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) have sunk into the \u201calert\u201d drought phase, leaving about a million people at risk of starvation, the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to an NDMA report released in Nairobi, the country\u2019s capital, the four regions\u2019 transition to the alert phase comes after a long period in which all 23 ASAL counties in the East African nation stayed in the \u201cnormal\u201d phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe situation is on a worsening trend across most of the ASAL counties due to the delayed onset of the October to December season,\u201d the NDMA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agency said it has also noted acute malnutrition across the counties, \u201cwith 479,498 children aged six to 59 months and 110,169 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers currently acutely malnourished and in need of treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The four counties at the alert phase of drought are Garissa, Kilifi, Kwale, and Tana River, while the counties with cases of malnutrition include Baringo, Turkana, Kitui, Laikipia, Lamu, Makueni, and West Pokot, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an East African bloc, noted in a recent report that the number of food-insecure people in the Horn of Africa stands at 67 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NAIROBI, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) \u2014 Four counties in Kenya\u2019s arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) have sunk into the \u201calert\u201d drought phase, leaving about a million people at risk of starvation, the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said on Thursday. According to an NDMA report released in Nairobi, the country\u2019s capital, the four regions\u2019 transition to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13682,"featured_media":760152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4625,26],"tags":[1981,491],"coauthors":[7495],"class_list":["post-760151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-top-stories","tag-featured","tag-kenya"],"yoast_head":"\n