"More than 23 million people are experiencing extreme hunger in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, according to a new report by Oxfam and Save the Children. That's up from over 10 million last year.

The region's worst drought in 40 years is being exacerbated by conflict and the pandemic. And the war in Ukraine has sent food prices soaring to record levels.

It's a crisis the world clearly could see coming, the report notes, with the drought becoming apparent as early as the summer of 2020 and the governments of Somalia and Kenya declaring emergencies this past fall. In February, the United Nations reported that hundreds of thousands children could die in Somalia by the end of the summer."

Eyder Peralta reports for NPR May 18, 2022. [2]