Famine in the Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa has been suffering under a drought for the past two years, and right now poverty, drought, and civil war have combined to threaten 10 million people with malnutrition and starvation. Somalia now has the highest rate of malnutrition in the world.  So far the famine in Southern Somalia has killed tens of thousands of people most of them children. According to the United Nations around 3.2 million people in Somalia need lifesaving assistance and the World Food Program says that as many as 19 to 24 children per 10,000 under age 5 are dying every day in some areas. “Somalia is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years,” according to Mark Bowden, the top U.N. official in charge of humanitarian aid to the country. He told reporters that $300 million is needed within two months to help alleviate the crisis.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/un-famine-in-somalia-is-killing-tens-of-thousands/2011/07/20/gIQAbV3iPI_story.html

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/07/29/against_the_grain?page=0,0