United Nations Declares Famine in Southern Somali Regions
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The United Nations declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia amid drought and conflict that have left 3.7 million people, almost half the country’s population, in need of humanitarian assistance.
Famine exists in the Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions, Mark Bowden, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, told reporters today in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. The food-security crisis in the Horn of Africa nation is the worst since a famine in 1992, when 300,000 people died, according to Action Against Hunger, a New York-based humanitarian organization.