Strife of civil war is obscuring the extent of Somalia’s ‘hidden famine’

People are starving but aid workers cannot get through to them because of spiralling violence From Steve Bloomfield in Nairobi THE HORN of Africa is in the grip of a devastating food crisis that has left up to 15 million people across the region in need of emergency food aid. A deadly combination of deepening drought and soaring food prices has led to huge rises in malnourished children in Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and parts of Uganda and Kenya. But nowhere is the situation as severe as in war-torn Somalia, a country without a functioning central government since 1991 which aid workers warn is on the brink of a "hidden famine". An ongoing conflict, pitting Ethiopian and Somali government forces on one side against a variety of Islamist militias on the other, is having a catastrophic effect on relief operations. As the... [read full story]