SOMALIA: Drought-stricken Somalia is facing a new famine on the scale of the catastrophe that killed tens of thousands of people in the early 1990s, a food security analyst said yesterday.
If the rains do not come, more than 10,000 people could die each month, said Nicholas Haan, chief technical adviser for the Food Security Analysis Unit, a project of the European Union and the US government.
"The southern part of Somalia would be at high risk of famine conditions, high risk meaning we estimate an over 50 per cent probability it's going to happen," Mr Haan said.
Since the ousting of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 hundreds of thousands have died from famine, disease and conflict in Somalia.
There are at least 1.7 million Somalis affected by drought out of a population of 10 million. Mr Haan said using the definition of famine as four deaths per 10,000 people per day, Somalia could see 12,000 deaths per month in those devastated areas.