World Food Programme chief Somali famine slowed, not avoided
Published:Tuesday | January 17, 2023 | 1:13 PM
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning World Food Programme (WFP) says support from donors like the United States and Germany have allowed it to postpone, though not entirely avert, famine in Somalia, but stressed that “we're not out of this yet”.
WFP Executive Director David Beasley said countries in the Horn of Africa have faced “unprecedented climate impact” from years of drought, and the UN agency had been expecting to announce famine in Somalia before donors “stepped up in magnificent ways.”
“And we've been able to, I don't know if the right word is 'avert' famine, but we definitely have postponed it,” he told The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. “We've been fortunate so far, given the climate shocks inside Somalia. But we're not out of this yet.”
But he warned that “we still could end up with a famine technically in Somalia” because “famine-like conditions” already exist.
“Once you officially declare to be a famine, well, it's too late,” Beasley said.
Famine is the extreme lack of food and a significant death rate from outright starvation or malnutrition combined with diseases like cholera.
A formal famine declaration means data shows more than a fifth of households have extreme food gaps, more than 30 per cent of children are acutely malnourished and over two people out of 10,000 are dying every day.
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