Obama: East Africa famine needs world to respond
Somali women carrying their malnourished children in a refugee camp for internally displaced people in Mogadishu, Somalia. Heavy fighting erupted Thursday in Somalia's capital as African Union peacekeepers launched an offensive aimed at protecting famine relief efforts from attacks by al-Qaida-linked militants, officials said. The al-Shabab militants already have killed men who tried to escape the famine with their families, saying it is better to starve than accept help from the West. The World Food Program says it cannot reach 2.2 million people in need of aid in the militant-controlled areas in southern Somalia because of insecurity. (July 28, 2011) Credit: AP
President Barack Obama says that the famine developing in eastern Africa needs an international response and that African nations must help figure out how to keep tens of thousands of people from starving.
Obama met at the White House on Friday with the presidents of four African countries: Guinea, Benin, Niger and Ivory Coast.
Addressing reporters afterward, he said the looming humanitarian crisis hasn't gotten the attention from the U.S. that it deserves.
A drought and the famine it's caused in Somalia have affected more than 11 million people, including 2.2 million Somalis who live in a militant-controlled area where aid groups can't deliver food.
The U.N. and the World Food Program delivered more than 50 tons of ready-to-use food and nutritional supplements to the capital of Mogadishu on Friday.
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