Somali famine Worsening, Thousands of Children Dead

Somali famine Worsening, Thousands of Children Dead

Dadaab, Kenya — A top official from the United States had warned Monday about the rising number of deaths among Somali children due to the worsening famine in East Africa. The unnamed top U.S. official stressed that urgent action is needed to rescue hundreds of thousands of hungry Somali children. Jill Biden, wife of U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, immediately flew over a Somali refugee camp to check the situation of the Somali refugees.

Jill Biden has been considered as the highest profile American visitor after the number of Somali refugees dramatically increased since July. Biden’s goal was to spread awareness globally and to persuade more donations from the international community. Biden completed her African trip by meeting with Mwai Kibaki, Kenyan President, and Raila Odinga, Kenyan Prime Minister.

U.S. President Barack Obama approved a $105 million assistance Monday to combat the worsening famine and drought in Africa. Famine has worsened specially in the south-central part of Somalia due to being a military controlled region, thus international aid cannot be immediately channeled effectively by the government. Somali refugees from the south-central region were forced to leave their place, where food is scarce, and ended up in refugee camps in neighboring countries of Ethiopia, Kenya and in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. For the past 3 months, 29,000 below 5 years old Somali children already died due to severe famine in the region. An estimate of 640,000 more malnourished Somali children might die if no immediate assistance will be provided to Somali refugees.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday August 10 2011, 4:36 AM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0