The situation in the Horn of Africa is continuing to worsen. According to The New Humanitarian, after “four droughts in a row, as many as 17 million people are going hungry in three countries in the Horn of Africa, with aid agencies warning that the hardest-hit areas are threatened by famine.”

Many fear that the war in the Ukraine is taking attention away from these crises. Dan Maxwell and colleagues have been working hard to encourage the humanitarian community to take needed action, based on lessons learned from past experiences.

• On June 12, 2022, Dan Maxwell was quoted in the New York Times article “‘We Buried Him and Kept Walking’: Children Die as Somalis Flee Hunger.” The article describes how the worst drought in four decades is imperiling lives across the Horn of Africa with the most devastating crisis is unfolding in Somalia, where almost half the population faces acute food shortages.Dan notes that the crisis scarily similar to the 2011 famine that killed approximately 260,000 people.
• On May 30, 2022, BBC’s Future Planet quoted Dan Maxwell in “How scientists predict famine before it hits.”
• On May 20, 2022, Dan Maxwell discussed famine risk with a group of ambassadors and agency heads in Geneva.
• On May 20, 2022 Dan Maxwell teamed up with Chris Porter (of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)) to hold a “teach in” on famine for the non-humanitarian actors of FCDO. More than 100 people participated.
• On May 16, Dan Maxwell was part of a small group who briefed USAID Administrator Samantha Power on the impact of the Ukraine war on humanitarian crises around the world.
• On May 16, 2022, Dan Maxwell and Peter Hailey briefed ambassadors and other decision makers in Ethiopia on the extent of the crisis there.