Staff Editorial: Famine Crisis in Somalia

Our view: The international community must come together to do whatever it can to help resolve the humanitarian crisis facing the people of Somalia.

More than twelve million people in the East African nations of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti are in desperate need of food and aid after the worst two-year period of drought in sixty years left many of them at risk of starvation. The drought has affected crop production and led to an increase in food prices in largely impoverished and agriculture-based economies. The worst of the situation is in the southern region of Somalia, where the United Nations (U. N.) officially labeled the crisis a "famine" in July.  Almost four million people—more than half the population of the country—are now in danger of starvation. The U. N. recently announced that the famine has spread to a sixth region of Somalia, warning that up to 750,000 people could die in the next four months if aid is not received.  

Although the drought has affected much of East Africa, hundreds of thousands of Somalis have fled to refugee camps in the neighboring countries of Ethiopia and Kenya. The vast majority of people in the refugee camps are women and children. Of the tens of thousands of people who have died from the crisis, the majority of them have been children ages five and younger, from a combination of malnutrition and childhood diseases like the measles. The camps are severely overcrowded and Ethiopia has recently called for "corridors of humanitarian assistance" to help ensure that aid intended for the region is received. 

The political instability of the country, which has not had a centralized government since 1991, when then-leader Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown, has made it difficult for humanitarian aid to be delivered. Somalia has been plagued by violence between rival clans for years.

 An Islamist militant group known as The Shabab, which controls much of the affected region and is linked to al-Qaeda, has been working to prevent Western intervention in the crisis. (Controversial U.S.-backed counter-terrorism operations in Somalia have recently been reported.) In spite of this (or perhaps because of it), the United States pledged $105 million in aid to Somalia in early August and has set aside $500 million for all of the affected countries.  The United Nations is still said to be $800 million short of its goal of just over a billion dollars to help the region.

In the wake of news frenzies about the Arab Spring, many news outlets have failed to cover the crisis in Somalia (apart from the national security aspect) with the same degree of urgency. The American public often wavers between being desensitized to what is often portrayed as endless poverty and war in the countries of Africa and treating the continent as the site of fashionable charitable causes, but increased international awareness and empathy is needed in order for real change to occur.