| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Horn |
| Famine spreads to sixth region of Somalia |
| 2011-09-06 |
| [Al Jazeera] Famine has spread to a sixth area of Somalia and tens of thousands of people have died as a result of severe food shortages, the UN has said. A statement from the UN Somalia Food Security Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) in Nairobi, Kenya, said on Monday that data gathered in August suggested the Bay Region had been hit by famine in addition to several areas already declared famine zones by the UN. "August survey results indicate that the prevalence of acute malnutrition and the rate of crude mortality have surpassed famine thresholds in Bay Region of southern Somalia," the statement said. "Tens of thousands of people have already died, over half of whom are children." Famine was first declared in the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of southern Somalia in July. It later spread to three further areas, including into the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and the Afgoye corridor, the world's largest camp for displaced people. The FSNAU conducted nutrition and mortality surveys across southern Somalia during July and August and found the most extreme levels of acute malnutition in Bay, it said. Several other areas are at severe risk of tipping over into famine conditions, it added. "The response to date has not been sufficient," Tony Burns, of SAACID, told Al Jizz. "The international monetary crisis weighs heavily in the western and international community, and we're just not getting the funds to make a systemic difference they need to dig deeper unless they want to see three, 400,000 people dead in the next quarter." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 sorry, we already gave |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-09-06 19:11 |