Thousands of needless deaths occurred from famine in East Africa last year. The US government says 29,000 children under five years old died between May and July 2011. That is because the international community failed to heed early warnings.
At one stage during the East African famine the UN estimated that 10 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance. Hundreds of thousands of refugees went to camps in search of food, especially those from parts of Somalia where government forces have been fighting Islamist al-Shabab militants. The report calls on all parties to take crisis warnings more seriously. "All members of the international system must improve their ability to prevent the worst effects of hunger crises before they happen," it says.
Oxfam and Save the Children say it took more than six months for aid agencies to act on warnings of imminent famine. The agencies say various organizations like governments, donors, the United Nations and NGOs need to learn from the mistakes.
Save the Children's Chief Executive, Justin Forsyth, said clear warnings had been ignored. He said, "We can no longer allow this grotesque situation to continue; where the world knows an emergency is coming but ignores it until confronted with TV pictures of desperately malnourished children."
I also think that an immediate action is required to a food shortage problem.
This problem is not the problem of only African countries but a problem of the entire world. Probably people of advanced nations need to have higher consciousness to the problem of the food shortage of an impoverished nation, and need to consider well "what he can do."
This problem is not the problem of only African countries but a problem of the entire world. Probably people of advanced nations need to have higher consciousness to the problem of the food shortage of an impoverished nation, and need to consider well "what he can do."
By Martin Plaut
BBC News
Published: 18 January 2012 Last updated at 02:12 GMT
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