Famine in the Horn

Image courtesy of the Economist

...for years famine seemed to have departed Africa. But after the worst drought in 60 years, it has returned. Northern Kenya, south-eastern Ethiopia, southern Somalia and Djibouti have been worst hit. The UN estimates that more than 12m people in the Horn of Africa need urgent help; tens of thousands have already died and hundreds of thousands more risk starvation. Livestock have been annihilated. Hundreds of thousands of people are streaming into refugee camps in search of help. Malnutrition rates in some areas are five times more severe than the threshold aid agencies use to define a crisis. Many children are already dying of starvation.