The United Nations says the famine in southern Somalia has spread to three more areas
of the country. Hundreds of people are believed to be dying each day from hunger or
malnutrition, and aid agencies warn that the famine will continue to spread without
immediate intervention.
More than 11 million people have been affected by the
worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa, and some 3.2 million people in Somalia
- almost half the population - need immediate life-saving assistance.
“What
is absolutely paramount right now is that in the coming days…people have to have access
to food, and right now it is limited,” said Louis-George Arsenault, Director of Emergency
Operations for the UNICEF.