Famine In Somalia

      Nowadays,some people are over spending on food without taking care of the others who are less fortunate.While we are throwing away the left-over that we couldn’t finish,think about those who are dying of famine like what is happening in Somalia.Famine means extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area.Following months of concern about a drought and food crisis building in East Africa, the United Nations declared in late July that two regions in Somalia, southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle, are now experiencing famine, as millions of other people in Kenya and Ethiopia are struggling to survive.The crisis has ensnared more than 10 million people across the Horn of Africa, but it’s in Somalia, plagued by years of conflict, where families are facing the gravest threats.

     Usually, a series of circumstances in concert are the trigger. In Somalia, a two-year drought has caused record food inflation, with the price of red sorghum, a grain, rocketing 240 percent higher now than it was this time last year. And the next harvest is expected to be just 50 percent of normal.The drought has also killed much of the livestock on which herders in the region depend for food and income. In some areas, up to 90 percent of the animals have died. Without those assets, families have lost a great deal of their purchasing power. And making matters worse is the internal conflict gripping Somalia—a severe discouragement to development.

     Humanitarian relief is desperately needed to save lives. But longer-term solutions are needed to address underlying problems.The international community needs to provide more support for small farmers and herders. Parts of Africa have long faced chronic food shortages, where even small disruptions in harvests can result in terrible consequences for people. Small-scale food producers need help with hardier crops, cheaper inputs, and disaster risk management.To alleviate rural African poverty, more investment is needed in physical infrastructure, such as roads and communication systems.Ultimately, famine prevention in Africa rests with African governments. But some need help to rid their countries of conflict and to build democratically responsive, accountable, and transparent institutions so they can address fundamental problems of food production and access.The famine in Somalia is now the fifth large-scale food crisis in Africa in this century—at a time when famine has been eradicated everywhere else. It serves as a wakeup call for long-term solutions to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

     In a nutshell,all of us in this world should support and cooperate each other to help the unfortunate people in Somalia today.