China helps drought-affected Horn of Africa countries

The Foreign Minister of the Asian country, Wang Yi, made the announcement on Monday during a telephone conversation with his Somali counterpart, Abdussaid Musa Ali, and the Chinese representation here on Wednesday reiterated it.

The assistance is a practical measure under the implementation of the Peace and Development Perspective in the Horn of Africa, an initiative put forward by the Chinese authorities at the beginning of the year.

Its main objective, according to Yi, is to cooperate with the region’s governments, without interfering in their affairs, “to jointly address the tripartite challenges of security, development and governance, and to achieve lasting peace, stability, development and prosperity.”

He added that to enhance communication and coordination with countries and promote the implementation of this project, China appointed a special envoy for regional affairs last week and will start work soon.

The so-called Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in at least 40 years. In Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, three countries in the region are reported to face food insecurity around 14 million citizens, of whom about 5.5 million are children.

That region of East Africa, one of the world’s poorest, is made up of Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea, although some sources frequently include Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, and Uganda.

rgh / raj