World Food Program chief: Somali famine slowed, not avoided
The head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning World Food Program says support from donors like the United States and Germany have allowed it to postpone — though not entirely avert — famine in Somalia
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning World Food Program 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 U.N. 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.
