Thursday, August 4, 2011

"Famine, war and chaos in Somalia"

I was interviewed, along with Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times East Africa bureau chief, and Mark Bowden, United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, on WHYY Radio about Somalia by guest host Tracey Matisak.

Here's the blurb:
Somalia – without a functioning government for most of the last 20 years, devastated by civil war and the insurgency of al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabab, and one of the poorest, most dangerous places in the world – has now endured successive droughts that have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis there, prompting the United Nations to declare a famine in two provinces of Somalia, and it is believed to be spreading throughout the country’s south. As tens of thousands of starving refugees flee across the border to refugee camps in Kenya, Al Shabab continues to threaten and attack Western aid groups it accuses of espionage and worse.