Somalia famine

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It's Probably Too Late to Avoid Famine in Somalia

'We are facing the death of children on a scale not seen in half a century,' says UNICEF

(Newser) - The last time famine was declared in Somalia, 260,000 people died—half of them children—and “the world vowed never to let it happen again,” according to CBS News. That was in 2011, but it is happening again, and this time it could be much worse, according...

UN Warns 350K Children Could Die in Drought by June

In Somalia, some 1.4M under age 5 are malnourished

(Newser) - "The situation cannot be more dire," said Adam Abdelmoula , a UN humanitarian official. Unless something is done quickly about the drought in Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula said, "350,000 of the 1.4 million severely malnourished children in the country will perish." The drought is Somalia's...

Somalia's Rising Woe: Mass Rape

Aid workers can't remember the last time so many women were being raped

(Newser) - Add another item to Somalia's long list of woes: A country wracked by violence and famine is also seeing a frightening rise in rape, reports the New York Times , which recounts the findings of aid workers and the tales of victims. The sexual abuse is occurring at the hands...

Stars Unite to 'F*** Famine'

Group aims to raise awareness, not money

(Newser) - Bono, George Clooney, Colin Farrell, and a host of celebrities spout the F-word in a new ad with a simple message: "F*** famine." (Don't worry, it's still SFW, thanks to a lot of censoring.) "Famine is the real obscenity," explains Bono in the...

Kenya Can Help Stop 'Mass Rape' of Somali Refugees Fleeing Famine
 Kenya: Help Stop 
 Rape of Somali Refugees 
Nicholas Kristof
Sep 25, 2011 1:45 PM CDT

Kenya: Help Stop Rape of Somali Refugees

Donor fatigue no excuse for giving up: Kristof

(Newser) - The severe famine gripping Somalia is not only starving millions of people, it's creating "an instance of mass rape" for refugees fleeing into Kenya, writes Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times . About 1,000 a day are forced to trek 50 miles from the border to a...

Somalia Famine Could Kill 750K: UN

12M in the region are in need of food aid

(Newser) - The news out of Somalia continues to grow more dismal: Today the UN announced that the drought coursing through East Africa is expected to worsen, and could claim as many as 750,000 lives in Somalia. The UN declared the Bay region a famine zone, making it the sixth area...

African Union Steps Up to Help Drought Victims

Donors conference pledges $356M

(Newser) - An African donors conference set up by the African Union has pledged $356 million to help alleviate the suffering of the 12 million hit by the drought battering the Horn of Africa. The lion’s share of that sum, $300 million, will come from the African Development Bank, with other...

Investigation Finds Massive Theft of Somalia Food Aid

One official estimates up to half of aid deliveries are stolen

(Newser) - Thousands of sacks of food aid meant for Somalia's famine victims have been stolen and are being sold at markets in the same neighborhoods where skeletal children in filthy refugee camps can't find enough to eat, an AP investigation finds. The UN's World Food Program for the...

US Plans $100M in Somalia Famine Aid

Hundreds of thousands of children could die, warns official

(Newser) - As top US officials warn that hundreds of thousands of children could die in Somalia's famine, Washington is preparing to send $100 million in new aid, two officials tell the AP . To raise awareness of the crisis, Jill Biden traveled to a refugee camp to "ask Americans and...

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

All under the age of 5, according to the US

(Newser) - 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...

Obama Lifts Anti-Terror Rule to Open Somalia Aid

Aid workers can now pay off al-Shabab

(Newser) - The US plans to back off an anti-terrorism rule that’s stemming the flow of aid to Somalis plagued by drought and famine. The current rules forbid US-funded groups from paying “taxes” or tolls to terrorist groups, the Washington Post explains. That’s proved untenable for aid workers in...

Somali Militants Launch Ramadan Offensive

Despite deadly famine, al-Shabab forces attack Mogadishu

(Newser) - For the fifth straight year, Islamic militant group al-Shabab used the start of Ramadan to launch attacks in Somalia, reports CNN . Despite one of the worst famines in 60 years , al-Shabab fighters attacked African Union forces in northeastern Mogadishu yesterday with suicide bombers, guns, and mortars. "In the midst...

Starving Somalis Leaving Children on 'Death Roads'

UN airlifting food to militant-controlled areas

(Newser) - Starving refugees and their children from famine-stricken Somalia are dying on their way to aid centers, the chief of the United Nations World Food Program warns. Desperate mothers have been forced to abandon dead or dying children along "roads of death" as they trek for days, sometimes weeks, to...

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