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Drought Fuels Famine for 100,000 Hondurans

Drought Fuels Famine for 100,000 Hondurans

Friday, 18 December 2009 05:57

The United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Thursday issued an alert to Central America, warning that millions of people in the region could be at risk for famine over the next few months due to severe drought conditions. The lack of rainfall has already prevented farmers from planting their crops in October and November. Farmers have also been unable to harvest crops previously sown. People have begun to eat the seeds of the wheat they were to have planted, meaning that they will have nothing to plant next season and thus prolong a cycle of hunger. OCHA is predicting that up to 100,000 people in Honduras, mostly in the south, may suffer from famine as a result of the ongoing drought.

Past droughts have left tens of thousands of Hondurans scavenging for bananas and mangoes or eating leaves from trees, further exacerbating the already serious problems of malnutrition and chronic illness in the country. (12/18/09) (photo courtesy Internet)