Famine and fundamentalism starve Somalia of hope

The famine in the Horn of Africa looks set to envelope six more regions of Somalia, according to the UN humanitarian relief agency. Civil war involving Islamist insurgents is exacerbating the situation.

The United Nations declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia -- where 3.7 million people are going hungry -- on July 20. There is always a steady trickle of Somalis coming into northern Kenya, mostly fleeing violence, but in recent months they have also been looking for food.

"Today we are warning that unless we see a massive increase in the response, the famine will spread to five or six more regions," the UN under-secretary-general and emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos told reporters.

Al Shabaab insurgents
Meanwhile, two suicide bombers attacked African Union peacekeeping soldiers in Somalia on Monday, killing two of them in a gunfight, but were themselves shot dead before they could detonate their explosives, an AU force spokesman said.

Al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab insurgents are battling to overthrow Somalia's Transitional Federal
Government and impose their own version of sharia law on the nation.
Source: Reuters