So are you asking the international community to invest in agriculture?

Absolutely, and not only in agriculture. People have various methods of coping. For example, the Juba Valley and the Shebelle region are drained by two huge rivers: the Shebelle River and the Juba River. They drain massive volumes of water into the Indian Ocean. So if we build methods of water conservation in those parts, we will have enough water for human use, for livestock use, and for agriculture as well. And these systems used to exist. It's just that now there isn't any government.

We also need to criminalize and punish those who are involved in the charcoal trade, because they are contributing to this crisis. Much of southern Somalia has now turned into a lunar landscape because of the [deforestation] work of criminal mafia groups who are involved in the charcoal trade. We should criminalize the buying of Somali charcoal too, tightening the screws both on the supply end and on the demand end.

What are the implications of large-scale displacements of Somalis who are fleeing to Kenya and Ethiopia, countries also facing some level of drought? Somalis' displacement will continue until there is a resolution of the crisis, a resolution of the political conflict and that appears far away because of what's going on in south Somalia. When we talk about the drought in northeastern Kenya and Ethiopia, these are places where despite a lot of hardships, you have governments in place, you have administrations that are in place, and they have better coping methods.

Source 2

Nearly 260,000 people died during the famine that hit Somalia from 2010 to 2012, a study shows.

Half of them were children under the age of five, says the report by the UN and the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net).

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said humanitarian aid needed to be provided more quickly.

The crisis was caused by a severe drought, worsened by conflict between rival groups fighting for power.

The number of deaths was higher than the estimated 220,000 people who died during the 1992 famine.

Western aid group ban

Rudi Van Aaken, the deputy head of the FAO operation for Somalia, told the BBC that the response had been too slow.

"I think the main lesson learned is that the humanitarian community should be ready to take early action - respond early on."

"Responding only when the famine is declared is very very ineffective. Actually about half of the casualties were there before the famine was already declared."

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