People in eastern Africa are enduring the worst drought in 40 years. Officials at UNICEF say millions of children are in urgent need of assistance as hunger, displacement and the spread of disease worsens in already vulnerable communities.

UNICEF Ethiopia's Deputy Representative, Kagoshima Mariko, says gains that have been made over the past year in Global South countries, especially Sub Saharan Africa, are being lost. She says an increasing number of children are suffering from malnutrition and otherwise preventable diseases.

Extreme weather events are also hitting the region, with some countries experiencing torrential rainfall and flooding. The overlapping disasters are fueling the spread of cholera. More than 8500 cases of the disease have been reported in Ethiopia alone since last August.
Kagoshima says cholera is one consequence of climate change, as it spreads rapidly in storm-hit areas that were previously suffering drought.

Kagoshima says conditions are especially impacting the lives of women and girls, as communities turn to extreme measures to survive. She points to the increase in child marriage in drought-affected parts of Ethiopia, which she says rose last year by 131 percent.

Kagoshima says the world needs to pay more attention to the Global South amid the intensifying effects of climate change.