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    July 26, 2011

Delays Hold Up UN Food Airlift to Horn of Africa

   VOA News
   Internally displaced Somali women queue to receive food-aid rations at
   a distribution center in a displaced persons camp in the Somali capital
   Mogadishu, on July 26, 2011
   Photo: AFP
   Internally displaced Somali women queue to receive food-aid rations at
   a distribution center in a displaced persons camp in the Somali capital
   Mogadishu, on July 26, 2011

   The U.N. World Food Program says an airlift of food to the
   drought-stricken Horn of Africa has been postponed until at least
   Wednesday.
   The airlift was due to begin Tuesday, but a WFP communications officer
   tells VOA's English to Africa service the flights have been held up by
   logistical problems in Kenya.
   The WFP said Monday that planes will carry food to Somalia's capital,
   Mogadishu, eastern Ethiopia, and northern Kenya, near the Somali
   border.

                                                     Definition of Famine:

        The word famine is a term that is not used lightly by humanitarian
     organizations. The United Nations describes a crisis as a famine only
                                    when the following conditions are met:
     * Malnutrition rates exceed 30 percent
     * More than two people per 10,000 people are dying each day
     * Severe lack of food access for large population
       
                                                           Current Famine:
     Almost half of Somalia's population, 3.7 million people, are affected
         by the current crisis with malnutrition rates in southern Somalia
        the highest in the world, surpassing 50 percent in some areas. The
              United Nations says it is likely that tens of thousands have
                  already have died, the majority of those being children.
        The drought that has led to the current famine in parts of Somalia
                           has also affected people in Kenya and Ethiopia.
                                   Previous Famines in the Horn of Africa:

     * Somalia 1991-1992
     * Ethiopia 1984-1985
     * Ethiopia 1974

   The United Nations says "massive" action is needed to save millions of
   people living in the Horn of Africa from starvation. U.N. and U.S.
   officials have said more than 11 million people are in need of
   emergency aid to survive.
   A donors' conference will be held Wednesday in Kenya's capital,
   Nairobi. The U.N. is seeking pledges of $1.6 billion to help drought
   victims, many of whom are children.
   On Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency said tens of thousands of starving
   Somalis are fleeing their homes and coming to the capital, Mogadishu,
   in search of food and water.
   The agency said 100,000 Somalis have arrived at Mogadishu-area camps in
   the past two months, and continue to come at a rate of 1,000 per day.
   It said hundreds of thousands of others have fled to camps in
   neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia.
   The U.N. formally declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia
   last week. Access to southern Somalia has been hampered by the militant
   group al-Shabab, which controls large sections of the region and has
   denied that a famine is taking place.

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