Somalia on brink of food crisis: UN
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The head of the UN Humanitarian Office for Somalia said nearly half the population of Somalia was facing hunger, and rising global food prices were making the crisis worse.
Mark Bowden, who is responsible for coordinating humanitarian aid for the horn of Africa country, said more than 2.5 million people were in urgent need of aid, and that number could rise by another million.
Mr Bowden said Somalia was facing a worse crisis than Darfur.
He said a number of factors were contributing, including appalling insecurity as rival militias continue to fight, successive droughts, sky-rocketing food prices, and a collapse of the Somali currency.
Aid agencies are facing extreme difficulties in trying to get food into Somalia, and that task is being made more difficult because violence has displaced a million Somalis from their homes.
- BBC
