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Suffering And Solutions In Somalia

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Jacki Lyden in for Tom Ashbrook

We examine the worsening food crisis and famine in Somalia.

Mihag Gedi Farah, a seven-month-old child with a weight of 3.4kg, is held by his mother in a field hospital of the International Rescue Committee, IRC, in the town of Dadaab, Kenya, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. (AP)
Mihag Gedi Farah, a seven-month-old child with a weight of 3.4kg, is held by his mother in a field hospital of the International Rescue Committee, IRC, in the town of Dadaab, Kenya, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. (AP)

Somalia is now a land of famine after the worst drought in six decades. Twenty years of civil war between Islamic insurgents and weak governments have turned southern Somalia into a sphere of horror and death.

The United Nations made the famine official last week. Tens of thousands are already believed dead and the U.N. Secretary General says hundreds of millions of dollars need to be found immediately.

This has all left the aid workers who predicted it furious.

This hour On Point: Somalia: what happens when the world turns away from disaster.
-Jacki Lyden
Guests:

Jeffrey Gettleman, East Africa Bureau Chief for the New York Times. He wrote in 2009 about what it is like to report from Somalia, an article you can find here.

Sinead Murray, aid worker with the International Rescue Committee

E.J. Hogendoorn, Horn of Africa Project Director for the International Crisis Group .

Semhar Araia, Horn of Africa Regional Policy Advisor for Oxfam .

More:

For more of the striking images of Mihag Gedi Farah, the "frail face of famine," please click here.

Here's an album of Oxfam photos from the crisis in Somalia.

[googlemap title="Dadaab UN refugee camp" url="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&t=k&ll=0.111751,40.315104&z=14" width="500" height="500"]

Here is some video of the crisis in Somalia.

http://youtu.be/_Hr7wSDNgxI

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This program aired on July 27, 2011.

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