Drought leaves people hungry in Kenya as their livestock die

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Drought conditions have left over 2 million people facing hunger in parts of Kenya, with cattle-keeping communities in the northeast the hardest hit, according to the United Nations and others.

In recent weeks, images of emaciated livestock in the arid area near the Somali border have shocked many in a region that reels from the effects of climate change.

In recent years, rainy seasons have become shorter for some communities, exposing them to drought. Normally, animals are the first to die.

The livestock losses echo what happened between 2020 and 2023, when millions of animals died in the region that extends from Kenya into parts of Ethiopia and Somalia. At the time, a famine predicted for Somalia was averted by a surge in international aid.

Four consecutive wet seasons have failed in parts of the Horn of Africa, which juts into the Indian Ocean.

The wet season from October to December was one of the driest ever recorded, according to the U.N. health agency. Because the rains were brief, parts of eastern Kenya were the driest they have been during that season since 1981.

Some 10 counties in Kenya are experiencing drought conditions, according to the National Drought Management Authority.

The northeastern county of Mandera, bordering Somalia, has reached the “alarm" classification, which means critical water shortages have led to the death of livestock and the wasting of children.

The suffering extends into Somalia, Tanzania and even Uganda, where many are threatened by similar weather patterns and water shortages, the World Health Organization said in late January.

In southern Somalia, an assessment by the Islamic Relief aid group found “shocking food shortages as families flee the region’s worsening drought.”

In Somalia, long vulnerable to drought conditions, over 3 million people have left their homes, seeking shelter in camps for the internally displaced.

But support is not enough, with 70% of the internally displaced in the city of Baidoa surviving on one meal a day or less, Islamic Relief said in a statement, adding that children in the camps are "showing visible signs of malnutrition and wasting.”

Experts say much of what's happening is due to climate change.

The Indian Ocean has become warmer, feeding some of the more destructive tropical storms in recent years. At the same time, drought conditions have become longer, more intense and more severe.

All of that is devastating for Africans whose economic mainstay is rain-fed agriculture, making them vulnerable to extreme weather. Many farmers say increasing temperatures deny livestock pasture and kill their crops.

Africa is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events because it is less equipped to prepare for natural disasters. Despite contributing only 3% to 4% of global emissions, according to the U.N., the continent is one of the most exposed to the effects of climate change.

A child stands in front of food aid supplied by the World Food Programme (WFP) ahead of distribution in Nalemkais Village, Turkana County, Kenya, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Ngugi)

A man sits beside his camel in Lomekulu Village, Turkana County, Kenya, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Ngugi)

Locals share food rations distributed by World Vision Kenya as severe drought continues, in Nalemkais Village, Turkana County, Kenya, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Ngugi)

An elderly Turkana woman covers herself from the hot sun after receiving her food ration, in Lomeluku Village, Turkana County, Kenya, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Ngugi)

Locals queue to receive relief food as severe drought continues, in Lomekulu Village, Turkana County, Kenya, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Ngugi)

CAIRO (AP) — Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.

Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice.

Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. “It's too early to say the shutdown is over,” he wrote on X.

Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war's steep economic costs.

The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.

A woman living in Tehran said that for months she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn't believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.

A taxi driver said service was restored but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.

Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.

Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.

A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.

“All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm,” he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.

“The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.

That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.

The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.

Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.

A woman checks her smartphone while sitting on a bench along a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)