Somalia Famine's Brutal Toll: 29K Kids Dead in 3 Months

All under the age of 5, according to the US
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2011 7:42 AM CDT
Somalia Famine's Brutal Toll: 29K Kids Under Age 5 Dead in 3 Months
A malnourished child from southern Somalia cries on his mother's lap, at a refugee camp in Mogadishu, Somalia.   (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

The UN has said that the famine in Somalia has killed tens of thousands, and the first specific estimate to emerge paints an even more heartbreaking picture. More than 29,000 children under the age of five have died in just the last 90 days in the southern part of the country, a US official told a congressional committee yesterday. The UN yesterday added three new regions in Somalia to the area deemed a famine zone, and noted that 3.2 million of the country's 7.5 million people require immediate lifesaving aid, reports the AP. (Click for more news on the toll the famine is taking on Somalia's children.)

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