UN's World Food Programme Moves to Close Centers in Starving Countries

via BBC NewsThe UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) is closing 12 feeding centers for mothers and children in Somalia.

Reuters reports that international food aid to feed the hungry are at a 20-year low. In the midst of this severe crisis, the number of hungry people will pass 1 billion this year, for the first time.

To date the WFP has confirmed $2.6 billion in funding for its 2009 budget of $6.7 billion.

The situation in Somalia is particularly critical, with the country again suffering from a severe drought. The UN estimates that fully half of the population needs food, and one in five children is acutely malnourished. The WFP is also running out of food in Kenya, with Ethiopia and Uganda on restriction. via BBC News

Related stories: Somali justice - Islamist-style. Relates a public amputation for stealing BBC News

What Would Dan Eldon Say About Somalia 2008? Anne’s Journal

Update on Wed, September 16, 2009 by Anne

Smart Pants Angelina Jolie Visits “One of the Most Dire’ Refugee Camps at Kenyan-Somali Border: Sept. 12, 2009.

Over 300,000 Somalis live in Dadaab, Kenya, having fled persistent “instability in Somali. The camp was created for 90,000 people. “We really need extra land, extra space, to be able to spread people out,” Oxfam’s Paul Smith Lomas told the BBC.

Inside Somalia almost half a million Somalis live in Mogadishu, the densest concentration of displaced people in the world.

Oxfam has described the situation as a “human tragedy of unthinkable proportions” and says the international response has been “shamefully inadequate”. via BBC News

The European Commission’s spokesman Daniel Dickinson denies that the international community is ignoring the problem.

Update on Sat, March 6, 2010 by Anne

As the US moves to help the Somalia government take back the country from Al-Shabab Islamists, the terrorists have announced they will stop all World Food Programme (WFP) operations in Somalia. Food aid has been suspended recently, but the UN says it’s ready to resume feeding people in this most dangerous spot on Earth.

Al-Shabab says that food distributed by the UN agency had disadvantaged local farmers and accused the WFP of being politically motivated. via Al Jazeera

See also US Returns to Somalia in Limited Role March 6, 2010