Famine in Somalia

Somalia is facing a tragedy – a situation so bad that one academic is quoted in the Times as saying, “We’ve lost this round.  The numbers are going to be horrifying.  We’re too late.”  The number he is referring to is the estimate of deaths for the coming months: 750,000.

There’s a small but compelling number of articles on the situation, the Times’ piece might actually be the best.

1. Times
2. BBC
3. Kristoph

Unsurprisingly this seems to not have made the news cycle back home.  I’ve also barely heard discussion about it here.  Feels oddly like this could be one of those things that gets a lot of press in a month or two and then we expats will all wake up one day to realize that we were in the region for one of those humanitarian tragedies that people will remember.  One of those things that galvanizes grandiose responses from world leaders – after the fact.

Here’s a list of organizations working in the area.  I’ll (mostly) keep my (mostly uninformed) opinion about each to myself.  But here’s a link to the International Rescue Committee’s website and they seem to be the best / most comprehensive / most active in the region.

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