Somalia Famine

"Landep News"

Somalia Famine

The United Nations World Food Program announced on Wednesday that it would begin the emergency airlifting of food in the drought-stricken area in the Horn of Africa, namely two regions in Somalia, where the famine has officially been declared by U.N. agencies.

The first flights will be headed toward the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, and other flights will carry food to eastern Ethiopia and Kenya, where hundreds of thousands of Somalis sought refuge from famine.

The crisis is so extended in Somalia that the U.N. agency was forced to call for reinforcements from other parts of the world, where they fight similar conditions.

On Wednesday, a donor conference will be held in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, and $1.6 billion is expected to be raised to combat hunger in Somalia for the next 12 months.

U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon met on Tuesday with the leaders of the Gulf States, whom he urged to pledge more commitment to limit the expansion of this humanitarian crisis.

The Saudi Arabian king Abdullah promised an $50 million support for the people in Somalia.

Women in Mogadishu

One third of the population of Somalia is officially stricken by famine, and there are reports of families that must leave members behind in their journey toward places where they can find food.

100,000 people have arrived in Mogadishu camps in the past two months from all over the country, and they continue to arrive at a rate of 1,000 per day. Hundreds of thousands of others have already found refuge in the camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.

The airdropping has been adopted as a means to reach the most affected areas in Somalia, since the two provinces where famine has been declared are under the control of al-Shabab, an Islamist group related to al-Qaeda.

Al-Shabab promised to grant safe passage only to the organizations it considers friendly, and deny the access of others. The leaders of the movement told the United Nations that the proportions of famine have been exaggerated by the media and by the U.N. agencies and that in reality situation is not as critical as it is been presented.

United Nations and the United States had to agree to send help to the people in Somalia even knowing that this way they would indirectly help al-Shabab consolidate its position in the region.

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