According to the UN, more than six out of every 10,000 people are dying of hunger every day in some parts of the Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia, with more than half the children there suffering from acute malnutrition. This is far above the normal famine threshold of two deaths per 10,000 people a day, and 30% malnutrition levels, UN agencies say.While there have been numerous disasters in the Horn of Africa over the past decade, it is the first time a famine has been declared in the region since 1992, when hundreds of thousands of Somalis starved to death, prompting an international peacekeeping intervention."Somalia is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years," says Mark Bowden, the UN official in charge of humanitarian aid in Somalia. "This desperate situation requires urgent action to save lives."
Guardian: Somalia famine: 'There is no longer any excuse for inaction', July 20, 2011
NY Times: Food Crisis in Somalia Is a Famine, U.N. Says, July 20, 2011
openDemocracy: A world in hunger: east Africa and beyond, July 21, 2011
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