UN humanitarian official urges attention to drought in Kenya

Associated Press

TURKANA, Kenya (AP) — A top United Nations humanitarian official has raised concern about people going hungry in a remote part of northern Kenya. Martin Griffiths, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said he saw families in Kenya’s Turkana region that have nothing left after their animals starved to death. Griffiths and other humanitarian representatives visited a pastoralist community in Turkana on Thursday to draw attention to the humanitarian challenge stemming from the drought. He said, “The world’s attention is elsewhere, and we know that.” The U.N. warned earlier this year that an estimated 13 million people are facing severe hunger in the wider Horn of Africa region as a result of persistent drought conditions.