UN Appeals for Famine Aid for Somalia
22 July 2011
Marwo Maalin feeds her severely malnourished daughter, one-year-old Habibo Bashir, at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in a refugee camp outside Dadaab, Kenya. Hundreds of Somali children have been left for dead on the long journey to the world's largest refugee complex in Dadaab.
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
This week, the United Nations declared a famine in parts of Somalia. A famine is declared when three conditions are reached. Hunger rates among children rise above thirty percent. More than two people in every one hundred thousand die each day. And many people are unable to get food and other basic needs.
Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, made the announcement Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya.
MARK BOWDEN: "We estimate that almost half of the Somali population, 3.7 million people, are affected by this crisis and a full 2.8 million people live in the south, the most seriously affected area. It is likely that tens of thousands will already have died, the majority of these being children.”
The United Nations says a lack of rain over the past few years has created a famine in two areas in southern Somalia: Bakool and Lower Shabelle. Officials say the famine could spread to other areas.
This is the first time since nineteen ninety-one that the UN has declared a famine in Somalia. The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in sixty years. UN officials have said more than eleven million people are in need of food aid.
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