The number of Somalis needing urgent food aid has jumped by 1 million people and children are the worst affected, according to the United Nations' (UN) children's charity, UNICEF.
Yesterday, the UN World Food Program began airlifting food into the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as well as eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. They were the first airlift of food since the UN declared a famine in two parts of Somalia last week.
The new data from UNIICEF came as senior officials from the G20 nations met in Rome, where Mr Bruno le Maire, France's Agriculture Minister, said the famine was set to become "the scandal of the century" if action was not taken. Almost 800,000 children are "acutely malnourished" and in need of special feeding - an increase of 40 per cent - with 82 per cent of them in the country's south, which is largely cut off from aid deliveries.
The number of people needing help has increased by 1 million since January and is 85 per cent higher than the same time last year.
Ms Afshan Khan, a UNICEF director, told the Rome conference that the response to the current crisis must be "flexible". "We must apply a range of modalities in different circumstances and adapting our response to local conditions and needs," she said.
UNICEF is one of the few agencies to bring supplies into Islamist-held areas of southern Somalia and Ms Khan's statement was seen as an indication that arrangements were on the table to increase such deliveries.
No new aid pledges came from the meeting, held by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. But politicians welcomed an announcement of £310 million (S$610.6 million) in fresh World Bank funds to help fight the current drought and prepare those already affected to cope with future dry spells.
Another meeting will be held in Kenya today when fresh promises are expected to fund programmes to save up to 11.5 million people in the Horn of Africa.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
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