Post date: Sep 05, 2011 11:6:41 AM
More than half of Somalia's entire population faces a severe food crisis as another region is declared a famine area by the United Nations.
NAIROBI, KENYA (SEPTEMBER 05, 2011) REUTERS - The United Nations declared on Monday (September 5) that another region of southern Somalia had been hit by the worst famine in the area for 20 years - leaving 4 million people in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation at risk of starvation.
"There are now four million Somalis facing crisis, more than 50 percent of the entire Somali population," Mark Bowden, the humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, told a media briefing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Years of drought, that have also affected Kenya and Ethiopia, have hit harvests, while conflict has made it extremely difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country.
Much of southern and central Somalia is controlled by Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda who imposed a ban on food aid in 2010, which the U.N. and the United States said had exacerbated the crisis.
Areas in which a famine had been declared were also being extended.
"The entire Bay region has now been declared a famine area, so there are now six famine areas in Somalia up from five. In these areas, there are some 750 thousand people who are affected by famine conditions. This is an increase from the July figure of 350 thousand people," Mark Bowden, the humanitarian coordinator for Somalia added.
The U.N. had earlier declared famine in Somalia's southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions.
The south is controlled by al Shabaab Islamist insurgents, affiliated to al Qaeda, who are fighting to topple the Western-backed government. The group also controls parts of the capital Mogadishu and central Somalia.
In early July, the rebels lifted a ban on food aid which they had previously said created dependency.
The U.N. defines famine as at least 20 percent of households facing extreme food shortages, a crude mortality rate of more than 2 people per 10,000 per day and malnutrition rates of above 30 percent.