Read at : Google Alert – images of the Africa Drought
U.N. declares end to Somalia famine but warns crisis not over
By Sudarsan Raghavan, Published: February 3
“The gains are fragile and will be reversed without continued support,” said Mark Bowden, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia.
Since July, when the United Nations declared a famine after successive failed rains, the Horn of Africa nation has been in the grip of one of the worst humanitarian emergencies the region has experienced in recent memory.
Images of emaciated children and weary mothers searching for food punctuated the crisis, as hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled to already overcrowded refugee camps in Kenya, Ethiopia and in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The situation was exacerbated by Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked militia, al-Shabab, which prevented aid agencies from helping victims in areas under its control. The United Nations estimates that tens of thousands died last year because of hunger and disease.
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