Sunday, July 31, 2011

Somali famine victims lose homes as torrential rain hits refugee camps

The Guardian (UK) via AP on the famine underway in East Africa: Tens of thousands of famine-stricken Somali refugees were left cold and drenched after torrential rains pounded their makeshift structures in the capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday, leading to renewed appeals for aid. Rain is needed to alleviate the drought but it wrecked many of the makeshift homes made of sticks and scraps of cloth.

Suffering refugees said more aid was vital but agencies have limited reach in Somalia where Islamist militants, including the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, are waging an insurgency against the country's weak UN-backed government. "We are living in plight, we left our homes, lost our animals and farms so we ask everyone to help us to survive," Abdi Muse Abshir said....

A child in the streets of Mogadishu in 1992, photo by Terry Mitchell, US Department of Defense employee

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