[ 2011-07-25 ]

The BBC's Andrew Harding says getting aid deeper into Somalia "is very slow, very complicated and... very dangerous""

UN talks due on Horn of Africa drought crisis
The BBC's Andrew Harding says getting aid deeper
into Somalia "is very slow, very complicated
and... very dangerous""
Continue reading the main story
East Africa hunger crisis

* Fleeing to a war zone
* Why Somalia can't cope
* Babies left to die
* Q&A: East Africa drought

The UN's food agency is set to hold emergency
talks in Rome as the drought crisis deepens in the
Horn of Africa.

More than 10 million people are thought to be at
risk of starvation. The UN has already declared
famine in two areas of southern Somalia.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged donor
countries to supply an extra $1.6bn (£980m) in
aid.

Earlier the Red Cross said it delivered food to
one of Somalia's worst-hit areas, controlled by
Islamists.

Working through a local committee, the Red Cross
delivered lorry-loads of food for 24,000 people.

Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group which
controls large swathes of south and central
Somalia, had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies
in its territories in 2009, but has recently
allowed limited access.

But the World Food Programme says it still cannot
reach 2.2 million people inside Somalia as
refugees continue to pour over the Kenyan and
Ethiopian borders.

The UN says East Africa is experiencing the worst
drought in 60 years. Somalia is thought to be
worst-hit, but Ethiopia and Kenya have also been
affected.

The meeting of ministers from the G20 nations at
the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation
headquarters in Rome was requested by France, the
current chair of the G20 group of powerful
economies.

Analysts say the drought has been caused by the
lack of rains and the failure of governments to
adequately finance agriculture and irrigation
schemes.

Source - BBC

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