famine news stories on Newser

Why North Korea Has So Many Famines

Mark Russell — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 10:48:05 CST

With North Korea agreeing to suspend its nuclear program in exchange for food aid (yet again), the Explainer blog at Slate takes on the question of why the North keeps suffering from famines and food shortages. In short, "poor growing conditions, fertilizer shortages, and general mismanagement." In the 1950s, to...

Half-Million May Face Famine in Sudan

Evann Gastaldo — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:35:23 CST

A tragic byproduct of the conflict in Sudan: If humanitarian organizations are not allowed in soon, half a million people could face near-famine by March. "There is a looming humanitarian disaster in Sudan," says the US envoy to Sudan, who is pushing for African intervention in the country. The government...

Stars Unite to 'F*** Famine'

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:36:24 CDT

Bono, George Clooney, Colin Farrell, and a host of celebrities spout the F-word in a new ad with a simple message: "F*** famine." (Don't worry, it's still SFW, thanks to a lot of censoring.) "Famine is the real obscenity," explains Bono in the video. The commercial points people to...

US Plans $100M in Somalia Famine Aid

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:00:05 CDT

As top US officials warn that hundreds of thousands of children could die in Somalia's famine, Washington is preparing to send $100 million in new aid, two officials tell the AP . To raise awareness of the crisis, Jill Biden traveled to a refugee camp to "ask Americans and people worldwide,...

Somalia Famine's Brutal Toll: 29K Kids Dead in 3 Months

Kate Schwartz — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:42:06 CDT

The UN has said that the famine in Somalia has killed tens of thousands, and the first specific estimate to emerge paints an even more heartbreaking picture. More than 29,000 children under the age of five have died in just the last 90 days in the southern part of...

Starving Somalis Leaving Children on 'Death Roads'

Rob Quinn — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:41:52 CDT

Starving refugees and their children from famine-stricken Somalia are dying on their way to aid centers, the chief of the United Nations World Food Program warns. Desperate mothers have been forced to abandon dead or dying children along "roads of death" as they trek for days, sometimes weeks, to seek...

Starving Somalia to Get Famine Designation

Kevin Spak — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:42:21 CDT

Drought and food shortages have gotten so bad in southern Somalia that the UN is almost certain to upgrade the situation from a “humanitarian emergency” to a “famine/humanitarian catastrophe,” sources tell the Telegraph . “It’s 99% certain that tomorrow we will have to declare a full phase-five famine situation,” says one...

Horn of Africa Close to Famine

Sarah Whitmire — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:03:12 CDT

A lack of rain and rising world prices have left an estimated 12 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia in dire need of food, the Telegraph reports. The reality is especially difficult to ignore in Dadaab, a city in northern Kenya experiencing its second-lowest rainfall in 60 years. Dadaab...

N. Korea Allows Private Food Markets

John Johnson — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:10:00 CDT

North Korea has effectively admitted that it can't feed its citizens by allowing people to buy food and other necessities at private markets, the Washington Post reports. Such markets have existed under the radar for years, but the government order sanctioning what amounts to capitalism "abandons all pretense of a...