Aid workers say children in Somalia are dying of starvation 'before our eyes'

A mother in Mogadishu holds her malnourished baby.
(Image credit: Ed Ram/AFP via Getty Images)

Somalia is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years, and a World Food Program official says famine is imminent for millions of people unless there is a "massive" and immediate increase in humanitarian relief and funding for the country.

"We need money and we need it now," Michael Dunford, the World Food Program's regional director for east Africa, told G7 leaders meeting this week in Germany. If there isn't a "massive scaling-up from right now," Dunford continued, it won't be possible to avoid a catastrophic famine in Somalia, where children are dying of starvation "before our eyes."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.