U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Edmund Randolph...
said in a statement "the United States is deeply concerned by the humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa and today's announcement by the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
that a famine is underway in parts of Somalia." She indicated that the U.S. "is the largest bilateral donor of emergency assistance to the eastern Horn of Africa," noting "we have already responded with over USD 431 million in food and non-food emergency assistance this year alone." "But it is not enough, the need is only expected to increase and more must be done by the United States and the international community," she stressed.
She announced "that is why today the United States government is providing an additional USD 28 million in aid for people in Somalia and for Somali refugees in Kenya." Clinton stressed that in Somalia, "twenty years without a central government and the relentless terrorism by a
l-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
against its own people has turned an already severe situation into a dire one that is only expected to get worse." "Even so, we remain cautiously optimistic that al-Shabaab will permit unimpeded international assistance in famine struck areas," she continued.
According to the U.S. top diplomat, the U.S. "in close coordination with the international community, is working to assist more than 11 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, who are in dire need of assistance." "But the United States cannot solve the crisis in the Horn alone. All donors in the international community must commit to taking additional steps to tackle both immediate assistance needs and strengthen capacity in the region to respond to future crises," Clinton remarked.