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UN Feeds Thousands of Drought-Hit Somalis
United Nations World Food Program’s director for Somalia disclosed that his agency has fed thousands of starving Somalis over the last three weeks. “We have managed to reach nearly 77,000 people affected by the most severe drought in the region for more than 20 years. We targeted those least able to cope — malnourished children, the destitute, the disabled and the aged,” he said in a statement. The statement said that WFP has delivered 732 tons of mixed food commodities, enough to last a month, to 39 villages in the Somaliland region — 15 of them through the northeastern region of Puntland. But the worst affected regions, Sool and Sanaag, are in the north of the country. It also noted that the humanitarian access to the northern regions has been guaranteed following extensive discussions of security issues between WFP and regional warlords administrations. “Thirty-two of the 39 villages we assisted were hit by rain which fell too late to relieve the food situation. The downpour brought temporary relief to water shortages, but 80 per cent of the livestock had already died.”
I don't suppose it's ever occurred to anybody to put the money going to buy arms and ammunition — I happen to know they're not free, even to Islamists — into things like desalinization and irrigation projects?... Naw. That'd never work.

Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-12-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=23362