East Africa Famine - is Food Aid the only answer

5 Sep 2011 BBC News

UN: 750,000 at risk of death within four months.
Somalia is at risk: 4 of its 8 regions now affected by famine.
Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Eritrea also affected by lack of rain and poor harvest.
12 million of people are said to need food aid.
50 per cent of children are suffering from malnutrition.
They are expecting rain in a few weeks' time. But more diseases are likely to spread.
There is not enough help getting in. The window to react is very narrow.
Way back in January the warnings were there. The UN is still struggling with money and food.


[Harriet Harman is Labour MP for International Development]

"I think the levels of suffering are absolutely dreadful. I saw the work of Islamic Relief which is a UK-based aid agency working in Northern Kenya. They saved lives through their feeding programmes backed by our government. Because they started early the aid started getting through. The problem is Somalia. It is the combination of drought and conflict. There is enough food if it could be distributed [Amazing] It is a problem of decades. Somalians are suffering at the hands of clans. Thousands of people are fleeing from the border. But while aid agencies are getting access over there....Save The Children is working there, Islamic Relief is working there, UNICEF is working there...but there are some areas where Al-Shabab which is this fundamentalist Islamist group which is controlling certain areas won't let the aid agencies in. We've got to sort out the political situation in Somalia. Often people think politics oh it's a problem. But it's politics and governance that's going to sort out the problem. It's not going to be solved through an international conference."

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