Murillo

AndrusGlenn

"If we don't act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests and infectious disease outbreaks," said the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden. BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says this marks a considerable change in policy from Washington. Families have built their own homes at the camp with tree branches, wood and plastic sheets, he says. Nearly half the Somali population - 3.7 million people - were in crisis, he said, with most of them in the south. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group which controls large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies in its territories in 2009, but has recently allowed limited access.