Famine in the Horn of Africa is of human origin - the result of artificially high prices for food and civil conflict, World Bank Chief Economist for Kenya Wolfgang Fengler told Reuters on Tuesday.
"This crisis is of human origin," Fengler said in a telephone interview. "The drought has taken place over and over again, but you have bad policy that will lead to a famine."
Some 12.4 million people in the Horn of Africa - such as Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti - seems to be the worst drought in decades, according to the UN. Tens of thousands of people have already died.
Fengler said that the price of corn, or maize, was significantly higher in East Africa, as elsewhere, because the control of local food markets.
"In Kenya, the price of corn is 60 to 70 percent above the world average for the moment," he said. "A small number of control farmers market is keeping prices artificially high."
The World Bank said Monday the food price index has increased by 33 percent in July over the previous year and remained at almost 2008 high-level, high prices will rise, corn and sugar.
Food and energy prices have fueled inflationary pressures around the world, but the problem was acute in developing countries.
"Corn is cheaper in the U.S. and Germany than it is in East Africa," said Fengler.
Somalia for two long decades of war is also considered as aggravating the famine in the Horn of Africa.
Some 3.7 million Somalis are at risk of hunger in two regions of southern Somalia controlled by the militant group Al Shabaab, which has blamed the food aid creating dependency and blocked humanitarian deliveries in the past.
The group accused the UN of exaggerating the degree of drought and to politicize the crisis.
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