Dismantle USAID and Make Famine More Likely

 The International Crisis Group published on 28 February 2025 a commentary titled "U.S. Aid Cuts Make Famine More Likely and Easier to Hide" with contributions by Chris Newton and Delaney Simon.  

The Trump administration has put a 90-day hold on most U.S. foreign aid, with devastating effects on the system built over decades for preventing famine.  The result may be more and deadlier famine, with greater impunity for parties using starvation as a weapon of war.

The dismantling of USAID represents more than just a retreat in foreign assistance.  It threatens infrastructure built over decades that, among other things, has served as a means of mitigating the most brutal effects of conflict.  

Somalia: So Is There Famine or Not?

 The New York Times published on 13 December 2022 an article titled "Somalis Are Dying of Hunger, Officials Say It's Not a Famine.  Why?" by Declan Walsh.  

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which is controlled by UN bodies and major relief agencies, determined that conditions in Somalia's worst hit drought region have come close to, but not crossed the threshold needed to formally declare a famine.  This decision has prompted a growing debate among aid experts, some of whom believe the situation constitutes a famine.