Pirates of the Horn

The brigands of the sea make big money and threaten their country with mass starvation

Somalia faces a worsening food crisis, largely ignored in the graphic reports of clashes between President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed's regime and its nationalist and Islamist opponents (AC Vol 49 No 13). However, without regular food supplies from the United Nations World Food Programme, Somalis will start dying of famine in large numbers. The WFP now says that in August it may have to suspend food deliveries by sea because shipping is too dangerous. It estimates that Somalia will require some 185,000 tonnes of food for 2008 and without deliveries by sea to the south of the country, it is unlikely that target can be met.

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Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Danish, French, Dutch, Kenyan, Hassan Abdi, Confessions of a pirate, Mohamed Abdi Hassan, Afweyne, Eritrea, Hussein Mohamed Farah, Aydeed, Garaad Mohamud Mohamed, South Korean, Dinax, Abdi Hassan Awale, Qaybdeed, Djibouti, German, Mohamed Jama Furuh, United States, Britain, Canadian, Bob Davidson, Singapore, Yemeni, Ethiopian, Le Ponant, Le Ponant

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