UN warns of looming famine in Somalia

The United Nations has warned of an imminent famine in parts of Somalia between October and December, as drought worsens and global food prices rise to record levels.

“Famine is approaching,” said the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, at a press conference in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Griffiths explained that he has concrete indications that there is a famine that will occur by autumn in south-central Somalia.

Also, Griffiths said, current “conditions and trends” are similar to those of 2010 and 2011, but are now “worse” due to four seasons of poor rains and decades of conflict.

The Horn of Africa is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years, and a major famine crisis spanning Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

But the scale of needs in Somalia is so great, and so severely underfunded, that aid groups are allocating all the resources they have to avoid a repeat of the 2011 famine that killed 260,000 people.