Africa editor, BBC News<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nA shortfall in donations has forced the World Food Programme to cut rations to those dependent on food aid in Somalia, the organisation has said.<\/p>\n
A drought which began late last year has left many Somalis short of food. The country has also been ravaged by two decades of violence.<\/p>\n
Already, one in four children in the south of the country are severely malnourished.<\/p>\n
Aid agencies describe their plight as very serious indeed.<\/p>\n
“We began having to cut ration sizes from February, to try and eke out what food we did have coming through the system,” WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon said from Nairobi.<\/p>\n
“Now, in May, it has really got extremely serious. We have only about 30% of the food that we need to feed the one million people that we were expecting to feed this time of the year.<\/p>\n
He said the organisation had been forced to reduce both the number of those it feeds and the ration given to each person.<\/p>\n
“In fact we’re feeding 66% of the one million people we should be feeding but the amount of food being given out is only 33% of what we should be giving out.”<\/p>\n
Often Somalis cross into neighbouring Ethiopia, to search for pasture and food.<\/p>\n
But an attack on a convoy earlier this month has forced the WFP to cancel its aid distributions.<\/p>\n
Until the security situation improves in Ethiopia, these cannot be resumed.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Kenyan army has attempted to prevent an exodus into the country, while across the Red Sea, another potential haven – Yemen – is in the throws of a political crisis.<\/p>\n
The WFP is to hold consultations with donors in the next few weeks to explain the severity of the situation.<\/p>\n
But currently there is little Somalis can do but wait and hope, as they face the prospect of war and drought as aid stockpiles are depleted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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