South Sudan Pushed Toward Famine

The World Food Program warns fighting and lack of access to the displaced in South Sudan are pushing that country towards a hunger catastrophe. WFP says this humanitarian disaster still can be prevented, but time is running out. 

Before fighting erupted in mid-December between the government and rebels, 140,000 people in South Sudan were suffering from severe food shortages. Now, World Food Program spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs says that number stands at 1.3 million.
“WFP is concerned about the food security situation and about the possibility of the food catastrophe or even famine developing over the coming year.  But, we can prevent this if we act now…This disaster can be prevented.  This is what I would like to point out.  We can prevent, but it is absolutely critical to stop fighting," said Byrs.
But, that seems unlikely. A second truce enacted between the warring factions on May 9th broke down not long after it was signed. 

VOA News

British Complicity in the Iranian Holocaust

The greatest calamity of the First World War was the little publicized Iranian Holocaust. An interview with the author of: "The Great Famine and Genocide in Persia, 1917-1919" (Mohammad Gholi Majd) - Mohammad Gholi Majd on Amazon

North Koreans will 'die from malnutrition within months'

Humanitarian groups fear that the death of Kim Jong-il could worsen North Korea's dire food situation, after the US postponed a decision on potential aid. The country has relied on foreign supplies since the devastating famine of the mid-90s killed hundreds of thousands of people. But the World Food Programme (WFP) and NGOs have warned that the situation is particularly bleak this year.

Aid groups warned that North Koreans would die from malnutrition within months unless donations increased. The WFP launched an emergency programme in April, but has received less than a third of the funding it needs. "We are concerned. Time is of the essence," said Ken Isaacs of Samaritan's Purse, a US-based NGO that helped to distribute the last American food aid in North Korea, almost three years ago.

David Austin of Mercy Corps, who visited flood-hit regions in September, warned: "The longer you delay this decision, the more suffering there's going to be." He said it would take six weeks to three months to set up new deliveries, and warned that based on current conditions, people's food rations would be cut "quite substantially" by April. "As that goes on and on, you'll see the effects of stunting in people's growth and their development. You'll see children dying," he said.

The Guardian

Somalia famine has killed '29,000 children'

Claim by US officials follows declaration of three new famine zones by UN and warning that more areas are vulnerable. US officials say that the famine in Somalia has killed more than 29,000 children in the last 90 days.

Separately, the UN has declared that three new regions in Somalia are famine zones, making a total of five regions affected by famine thus far in the Horn of Africa country. The UN had said last month two regions were suffering from famine.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN's food arm, has said that famine is likely to spread across all regions of Somalia's south in the next four to six weeks.

Famine, as defined by the UN, refers to situations when at least 20 per cent of households face food shortages so severe that they are unable to cope with it and more than two people out of 10 000 people die daily. Additionally, famine conditions are likely to persist until December, FAO said. Across Somalia, 3.7 million people are in crisis out of a population of 7.5 million, the UN says.

Al Jazeera

United Nations Declares Famine In Southern Somalia

The United Nations has declared a famine in Somalia as east Africa continues to suffer through its worst drought in 50 years. The UN said that in two regions of southern Somalia, Bakool and Lower Shabelle, the rate of serious malnutrition among children was now high enough to be considered a famine.

More than 30 percent of children in the region are now acutely malnourished. Around four in 10,000 children are now dying every day. It is the first time in almost twenty years that Somalia has seen famine inside its borders.

"Across the country nearly half of the Somali population - 3.7 million people - are now in crisis, of whom an estimated 2.8 million people are in the south," the UN said in a statement. "Consecutive droughts have affected the country in the last few years, while the ongoing conflict has made it extremely difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country," it added.

The UN also warned that famine could spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia in two months if more is not done to halt the crisis.

More on Huffington Post

Book claims Churchill deliberately let millions of Indians starve to death

British prime minister Winston Churchill deliberately let millions of Indians starve to death, the author of a new book has claimed, alleging he was motivated in part by racial hatred.

As many as three million people died in the Bengal famine of 1943 after Japan captured neighbouring Burma -- a major source of rice imports -- and British colonial rulers in India stockpiled food for soldiers and war workers.

Panic-buying of rice sent prices soaring, and distribution channels were wrecked when officials confiscated or destroyed most boats and bullock carts in Bengal to stop them falling into enemy hands if Japan invaded.

Rice suddenly became scarce in markets and, as worsening hunger spread through villages, Churchill repeatedly refused pleas for emergency food shipments.

Emaciated masses drifted into Kolkata, where eye-witnesses described men fighting over foul scraps and skeletal mothers dying in the streets as British and middle-class Indians ate large meals in their clubs or at home.

The "man-made" famine has long been one of the darkest chapters of the British Raj, but now Madhusree Mukerjee says she has uncovered evidence that Churchill was directly responsible for the appalling suffering.

Her book, "Churchill's Secret War", quotes previously unused papers that disprove his claim that no ships could be spared from the war and that show him brushing aside increasingly desperate requests from British officials in India.

Full article on Raw Story