U.N.: Famine Declared in Three New Somali Regions

Famine has spread to three new regions of Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu and the world's largest camp for displaced people, owing to a harsh drought ravaging the Horn of Africa, the United Nations said Wednesday.

The new areas include two sites where hundreds of thousands of Somalis have fled in desperate search of food as internally displaced people (IDP).

"Famine is now present. The three areas are the Afgoye corridor IDP settlement, the Mogadishu IDP community, in all seven districts of the city, and in the Balaad and Adale districts of Middle Shabelle", said Grainne Moloney, head of the U.N. Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia.

Last month, the U.N. declared famine in the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of southern Somalia due to the prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa region.

Up to 409,000 Somalis are reported to be in the Afgoye corridor area, Moloney said, the world's largest displacement camp.

In the war-torn capital Mogadishu, up to 100,000 Somalis have fled from the drought, with up to 1,000 people arriving every day, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

"Despite increased attention in recent weeks, the current humanitarian response remains inadequate, due in part to ongoing access restrictions and difficulties in scaling-up emergency assistance programs, as well as funding gaps," the U.N. unit said in a statement.

"As a result, famine is expected to spread across all regions of the south in the coming four to six weeks," the statement added.

Recent torrential rains around the capital have added to the misery of those with basic shelter and already weakened by hunger.

"The current situation represents the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world today and Africa's worst food security crisis since Somalia's 1991-92 famine," the U.N. added.

Famine implies that at least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition in over 30 percent of people, and two deaths per 10,000 people every day, according to U.N. definition.

The majority of areas declared to be in famine are controlled by al-Qaida-linked Shebab rebels, who have blocked several key aid agencies from delivering aid.

Despite listing the Shebab as a terrorist group, the United States said Tuesday it would support relief work in areas they control, with the U.N. warning that tens of thousands of people have already died.

U.S. officials said they were maintaining sanctions against the militia, but would fund reputable groups that take the risk to bring food into Shebab-run territory.

The U.N. agency FSNAU said that the price of staple cereals had more than doubled since 2010 in some areas of southern Somalia, normally the breadbasket of the war-wracked Horn of African country.

Deaths among the entire population had exceeded the famine threshold of two per 10,000 people daily in Balaad and Adale regions, while deaths of children under five reached 13 per 10,000 people every day among the IDPs.