Source: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
Date: 18 Jul 2008

LONDON - The United Nations World Food Programme said today that attacks on aid workers on the ground and threats to ships delivering food aid to Somalia, are jeopardising the lives of millions who now need urgent food assistance.

"Somalia is at a dire crossroads," said Peter Goossens, WFP's Country Director for Somalia at a news conference today in London. "If sufficient food and other humanitarian assistance cannot be scaled up in the coming months, parts of the country could well be in the grips of disaster similar to the 1992-1993 famine, when hundreds of thousands of people perished."

Insecurity, drought, a succession of poor or failed harvests, are deepening the suffering of millions of people in the country, and pushing hundreds of thousands more into destitution. The situation is exacerbated by the weakness of the Somali shilling against the dollar, coupled with rising food and fuel prices.

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