SOCIETAL & INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE: Boat Sinks Off Turkey - Up To 40 Migrants Killed, Including 5 Children!

© Giorgos Moutafis / Reuters

January 31, 2016 - TURKEY - Almost 40 people have drowned in the Aegean Sea near the Turkey’s western coast, as a migrant boat sank on its way to the Greek island of Lesbos, local media report.

A 17-meter boat was carrying at least 120 people before it sank off the coast of Ayvacik, a town across from the Greek island of Lesvos, according to the Dogan news agency. The agency says at least five of those dead are children while almost 40 dead bodies have been discovered.

"Local people woke up to the sound of screaming migrants and we have been carrying out rescue work since dawn. We have an 80-kilometre-long coast just across from Lesvos, which is very hard to keep under control", Mehmet Unal Sahin, the mayor of Ayvacik, told CNNTurk.

Turkish coast guards have managed to rescue 75 people so far near the resort of Ayvacik, located in the Marmara Region, popular with tourists.

The migrants were admitted to the hospital with hypothermia symptoms. The survivors allegedly came from Afghanistan, Syria and Myanmar.

However, the number of victims may be higher, as the rescue teams are still conducting search and rescue operation.

Over 210 people have died this year so far trying to make the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece, according to estimates by the International Organization for Migration. Last year more than 700 drowned or were reported as missing in the Aegean Sea. The organization called the Mediterranean Sea, which claimed the lives of 3,700 people attempting to reach Europe in 2015, the world’s “deadliest.”

Turkey is a primary destination for asylum seekers and migrants who want to cross to Europe. About 500,00 refugees from Syria fled the embattled country through Turkey since the beginning of the Syrian military conflict.

People, forced to abandon their homes by the perils of the war, often venture into Europe in overcrowded rubber boats, without any protection, as was in the case with Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in September last year on his route to the Greek island of Kos. After the pictures of his body washed ashore in Turkish resort city of Bodrum, made global headlines, he became a symbol of the struggles the refugees have to endure trying to make it to Europe.

Turkey now hosts more than 3 million refugees, with about 2.5 million of them from Syria.Last November, Turkey pledged to curb the flow of migrants streaming through its territory to the EU in return for 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of financial aid designed to provide better living conditions for the Syrian refugees already living in Turkey. - RT.

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Refugee Boats Sink Off Greek Coast - 17 CHILDREN Among 42 Drowned As The Worst Migrant Crisis Since World War II, Continues!

© Giorgos Moutafis / Reuters

January 22, 2016 - AEGEAN SEA - At least 42 refugees, including 17 children, drowned after two boats sank in the Aegean Sea early on Friday.

A search and rescue operation is underway for potential survivors. The first incident involved a wooden boat carrying 49 people, which sank off the small Greek island of Farmakonisi.

The bodies of eight refugees – six children and two women – were recovered from the sea. Forty people managed to make it safely to shore, and authorities rescued one girl, AP reported.

A few hours later, a wooden sailboat carrying an unknown number of people sank off the island of Kalolimnos, south of Farmakonisi. Thirty-four bodies – 16 women, 11 children, and seven men – were recovered by the coast guard, and 26 people were rescued.

Coast guard vessels, a helicopter and private boats continue to search for other possible survivors from the second boat. It is difficult to determine how many people could be missing, as survivors' estimates of passengers vary from 40 to 70 people.

Greece has become the main gateway for refugees trying to reach the European Union. More than 800,000 people entered the country last year, most of whom arrived on rickety boats from the nearby Turkish coast.

2015 deadliest year for migrants crossing Mediterranean.

More than 700 people died or were reported as missing in the Aegean crossing last year, and another 100 have already perished this month. In December, the International Organization for Migration called the Mediterranean Sea the deadliest place for refugees, stating that 3,770 people died while making the crossing to Europe in 2015. The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean.

Turkey is home to nearly three million refugees, most of them from Syria. Many pay smugglers thousands of dollars to make the dangerous crossing to Greece. From there, most of them head north to Germany or Scandinavia.

EU countries are urging Turkey to help control the flow of refugees, and Merkel has pressed the EU to honor its pledge of €3 billion (US$3.3 billion) to improve conditions for those living there.

Europe continues to face the worst refugee crisis since World War II, with the number of asylum seekers expected to increase this year. More than one million refugees entered Europe last year, most of whom came from Syria, where a civil war has taken the lives of 250,000 people and displaced 12 million others since 2011, according to UN figures. - RT.

PARADIGM SHIFT: Civilizations Unraveling And Precursors To The End Of The White Supremacy Paradigm - Billionaire Financier George Soros Warns That The European Union Is On The "VERGE OF COLLAPSE" Over The Migrant Crisis!

January 22, 2016 - EUROPE - Billionaire financier George Soros has warned that the European Union is on the "verge of collapse" over the migrant crisis and is in "danger of kicking the ball further up the hill" in its management of the issue which has seen more than a million migrants and refugees arrive in the region in 2015.

In an interview with the New York Review of Books, Soros added that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is key to solving the crisis.

Merkel led Europe's response to the migrant crisis, opening Germany to the refugees that had travelled from the Middle East, in particular Syria, to try and find a new home in Europe. The decision by the German leader marked a sea-change in her policy. In the interview, Soros said he welcomed Merkel's move.

"There is plenty to be nervous about," the financier said.

"As she (Merkel) correctly predicted, the EU is on the verge of collapse. The Greek crisis taught the European authorities the art of muddling through one crisis after another. This practice is popularly known as kicking the can down the road, although it would be more accurate to describe it as kicking a ball uphill so that it keeps rolling back down."

"Merkel correctly foresaw the potential of the migration crisis to destroy the European Union. What was a prediction has become the reality. The European Union badly needs fixing. This is a fact but it is not irreversible. And the people who can stop Merkel's dire prediction from coming true are actually the German people. "

"Now it's time for Germans to decide: Do they want to accept the responsibilities and the liabilities involved in being the dominant power in Europe?"

George Soros.

Soros' comments come as Finland's Finance Minister, Alex Stubb, told CNBC that Germany's open policy on migrants was, "humane, that was probably the right thing to do at the time but the key issue here is that one of the fundamental freedoms of the European Union is under threat and that is the free movement of people and the whole Schengen agreement."

"On top of that, we've had a Euro crisis which is about free movement of money so two of the core pillars of European integration are under threat right now," said Stubb, to CNBC in Davos.

In his interview Wednesday, Stubb denied the idea that the Schengen zone, which allows the free passage of EU citizens through almost all of its members, is a security threat to Europe.

"We shouldn't draw parallels between [the] refugee crisis and terrorism. The roots of terrorism are much, much deeper than that."

"What we need to watch out for is radicalization. What does this mean? It means we need to get these people to work, we need to give these people employment, we need to give them hope, we need to integrate them into our societies, they need to learn our languages," said the Finance Minister, to CNBC.

Stubb, known for his fiscally hardline views, explained to CNBC why he wants to improve competitiveness in Finland.

"We basically need to do what Germany did in the late 1990s, early 2000s. We need to take some hard reforms; basically, I'm looking at a positive circle or a virtuous circle of the economy, that means number one, we become more competitive, number two, we get more exports, number three, we get more jobs, number four, we get more taxes, which I like as finance minister, and then number five, in order to finance our welfare state, we use those taxes."

Stubb also shared his thoughts on the UK referendum vote.

"I think it would be a great travesty both for the UK, economically, politically and otherwise, and a travesty for the European Union if there was a divorce," he said to CNBC. - CNBC.

PLAGUES & PESTILENCES: Health Crisis In Denmark - Refugees Bring Back Diphtheria, Tuberculosis And Malaria!

© Michael Dalder / Reuters

January 20, 2016 - DENMARK - Danish authorities have warned hospitals over possible outbreak of infectious diseases as several cases of diphtheria, tuberculosis and malaria carried by the refugees have already been registered.

“The infection can be very dangerous if one isn’t vaccinated against it. The dangerous type is very rare and we last saw it in Denmark in 1998,” Kurt Fuursted, spokesperson for the Danish State Serum Institute (SSI) told Metroxpress referring to the potential return of diphtheria. This disease was last diagnosed in Denmark about 20 years ago.

“There is no doubt that infectious diseases are coming in with the refugees that we aren’t used to. There have been discussions on whether all refugees who come to Denmark should be screened," he added.

At present Denmark doesn’t follow the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to vaccinate incoming migrants, unlike some other European countries.

“Refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants should be vaccinated without unnecessary delay according to the immunization schedule of the country in which they intend to stay for more than a week,” reads a joint WHO-UNHCR-UNICEF guidance on general principles of vaccination of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in Europe, published on November 23 last year. It urges countries to provide migrants access to the “full vaccination schedule.”

The immigration officials and the Danish Health and Medicines Authority, a supreme healthcare authority in Denmark, are expected to review screening policy, according to Health Minister Sophie Lunde.

In recent months, Denmark has begun to tighten the screws in an effort to curb the refugee influx. On Thursday the Danish Parliament is set to vote on a bill proposing to strip refugees of valuables, including cash and jewelry, to cover the costs the country bears in connection with their stay. It would allow authorities to claim individual items valued at more than 10,000 kroner (US$1,450).

In the Danish cities of Thisted, Sonderborg and Haderslev, local club owners have started to introduce ‘language controls’, turning people away if they don’t speak Danish, English or German.

In 2015, some 18,000 refugees sought asylum in Denmark according to the migration agency, a far cry from almost 163,000 refugees in the neighboring Sweden. - RT.

PARADIGM SHIFT & THE AGE OF OBAMA: Welcome To Hamtramck - The FIRST MUSLIM MAJORITY CITY In The United States!

A Muslim woman wears a niqab as she walks past a McDonald's restaurant in Hamtramck, Mich. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)

November 23, 2015 - MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES - Earlier this month, a blue-collar city in Michigan that has been home to Polish Catholic immigrants and their descendants for more than a century became what demographers think is the first jurisdiction in the nation to elect a majority-Muslim council, as the Washington Post reports.

However, that simply caps a population shift that has been going on over the last decade. In 2013, Hamtramck became the first majority-Muslim city in the nation after thousands of immigrants from Yemen, Bangladesh and Bosnia moved in.

The city was in the news earlier this month when a video surfaced after the city council election showing Muslim community organizer Ibrahim Algahim saying “Today, we show the Polish and everybody else.”


WATCH: Ibrahim Algahim issues warning to the Polish community in Hamtramck.

The Washington Post notes some residents are proud of the city’s diversity including the fact that at least 27 languages are spoken in Hamtramck schools.

Diversity or divisiveness? How do you possibly teach unity and a singular, consistent love of country in 27 different languages?
“Many longtime residents point to 2004 as the year they suspected that the town’s culture had shifted irrevocably. It was then that the city council gave permission to al-Islah Islamic Center to broadcast its call to prayer from speakers atop its roof.

The Polish people think we were invading them,” said Masud Khan, one of the mosque’s leaders, recalling that time in an interview earlier this month. “We were a big threat to their religion and culture. Now their days are gone.”

The mosque, which attracts about 500 people for its Friday prayer services, has purchased a neighboring vacant limestone building in the heart of the city that once was a furniture store. The mosque’s leaders plan to put a minaret — a spire — on the building and use it to continue broadcasting a call to prayer five times a day.

The private sale enraged city leaders, including the mayor, who sees the area as key to commercial growth. Mosque leaders estimate that the 20,000-square-foot building will hold up to 2,000 people once the renovation is finished next year.

Frank Zacharias, an elderly Polish American usher at St. Ladislaus, the Catholic parish across the street from the mosque, is intimately familiar with life on Hamtramck’s streets, which he tromped for 28 years as a mail carrier before retiring. The changes have stunned him, he said.

“It was hard at the beginning,” he said, referring to 2004, when the mosque began the call to prayer. But, he added: “They’re human. You gotta live with them. Hamtramck is known for diversity.”
Excuse me, but I don’t believe it’s “diversity” when the majority believes your “days are gone.”

Last week during one of his appearances on Fox News, Col. West mentioned the Muslim Brotherhood’s Explanatory Memorandum which details the group’s plans to bring about a “civilization jihad in North America, specifically:

“Enablement of Islam in North America, meaning: establishing an effective and a stable Islamic Movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood which adopts Muslims’ causes domestically and globally, and which works to expand the observant Muslim base, aims at unifying and directing Muslims’ efforts, presents Islam as a civilization alternative, and supports the global Islamic State wherever it is.”

You may want to pretend this isn’t happening before your eyes. You may want to believe this can’t possibly be true. Fair enough, then pay a visit to Hamtramck – to see what your town might look like in a few years. - Allen B. West.

GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS: New Americans Turn To Goats To Address Food Demand!

April 27, 2014 - UNITED STATES -  A bunch of kids in a minivan are solving twin challenges in northern Vermont: refugees struggling to find the food of their homelands and farmers looking to offload unwanted livestock.

The half dozen kids - that is, baby goats - that arrived last week at Pine Island Farm were the latest additions to the Vermont Goat Collaborative, a project that brings together new Americans hungry for goat meat with dairy goat farmers who have no need for young male animals. Some dairy farmers who otherwise would discard bucklings at birth or spend valuable time finding homes for them now can send them to Colchester, where they will be raised and sold to refugees, some of whom have spent full days traveling to Boston or New Hampshire for fresh goat, or have settled for imported frozen meat.

When community organizer Karen Freudenberger realized that the roughly 6,000 new Americans from southeast Asia, Africa and elsewhere living in the Burlington area were buying what amounted to 3,000 goats a year from Australia and New Zealand, she saw an opportunity. Since some of them had been farmers raising goats in their native countries, why couldn't they do it in Vermont, prized for its working landscape and locally raised foods?

"People keep saying, are you sure you can sell all those goats? We are sure we can sell all those goats," said Freudenberger, who helped launch the project.

Now in its second year, the collaborative includes two families from Bhutan and Rwanda who are raising about 200 baby goats that will be slaughtered on site and sold in the fall.

While there are no federal statistics on goat meat consumption, the USDA says demand for it is increasing, driven in part by a growth in ethnic populations. The U.S. had 2.3 million head of meat goats in January 2013, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, with Texas producing the most, followed by Tennessee.

Some of the refugees Freudenberger has worked with had trouble communicating with farmers when trying to buy fresh goat meat, while others were questioned by authorities for slaughtering an animal by the side of the road or for having a goat in a car. They are looking forward to being able to select, buy and slaughter their goats in a matter of hours instead of making the long, expensive trip to Boston, said goat farmer Chuda Dhaurali.

"It's very helpful," he said. "They are so excited."

"The whole project is really designed around trying to meet this particular niche demand that this community has ... in a way that meets the particular cultural and taste desires of their communities," Freudenberger said.

The project is a collaboration between the Vermont Land Trust, which is giving the farmers access to the farm property on the Winooski River, and the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, now called AALV. The idea is that the land will be transferred to a cooperative entity representing the new American population and that group will take over the costs of the land - such as the insurance and taxes, Freudenberger said.

A grant of about $20,000 from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters helped to get Dhaurali started last year with electric fencing, feed and other supplies. Another Vermont Working Lands grant of more than $10,000 helped create the custom slaughter facility. The project subsidizes the farmer for the first year, but when they sell the goats in the fall, it allows them to finance future years.

Last year the project sold about 100 goats to families from more than 15 nationalities. Often, whole families including grandparents visit the farm to pick out the goat. Goat buyers can slaughter the animals on site the way they are accustomed to.

"It's more than just the meat - the nutritional side of it. It's also very cultural in terms of the way that people are wanting to participate in the whole process," Freudenberger said.

And Dhaurali, who is from Bhutan and spent 18 years as a refugee in Nepal, said many of the older members of Vermont's Nepalese community don't care for the taste of chicken, beef or pork.

The Vermont Goat Collaborative could grow to about 400 goats, with three families sharing the barn and pasture. That's far from meeting the demand, but that's not the idea. The project is designed to be a model that could be transferred to other farms and states. It already has sparked interest in Maine, New Hampshire and North Carolina.

"The idea is not to get our farm huge so that we can send our goats all over the country, but it's to get a working a model that then can be transferred and tweaked given people's particular situations to make it work," Freudenberger said. - MYFOXDC.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Boat Capsize In Lake Albert, Uganda - 107 Bodies Found, Including 57 Children!

March 26, 2014 - UGANDA - Rescue workers in Uganda have so far recovered 107 bodies, including those of 57 children, after a boat capsized on Saturday on Lake Albert, a government minister has said.

Civilians have been involved in rescue operations.

The boat was taking refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo back to their home country when it capsized.

It had a capacity to carry only 80 passengers, but up to 250 people were on board, officials said.

Boat accidents are common in Uganda because of poor safety standards.

Boats are often overloaded and do not carry life jackets.

'Deeply shocked'

Uganda's Refugees Minister Hillary Onek said the police, the military's marine units and civilian fishing boats were all involved in rescue operations.

The 107 bodies recovered so far included 57 children, he said.

"The exact number of passengers on board has yet to be established," Mr Onek added.

On Monday, the UN high commissioner for refugees Antonio Guterres said he was deeply shocked by the disaster.

"My thoughts are with those who have lost dear ones, and the survivors," he said in a statement.

"I am grateful to the government and other actors who have mounted a rescue-and-recovery operation and are assisting the survivors.''

The boat was one of two which left on Saturday from Uganda's Hoima district on the eastern side of the lake, which lies on the border with DR Congo.

The boats were carrying refugees who had been living at a camp in Uganda, and had decided to return to eastern DR Congo of their own accord, the UNHCR said. - BBC.

MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: IDMC Study - Natural Disasters Displaced 32.4 Million People In 2012!

May 16, 2013 - EARTH - More than 30 million people fled their homes in 2012 because of disasters such as floods, storms and earthquakes, a new report indicates.

Rainy Season Floods, South Sudan:  340,000 displaced - Sudanese refugees wait in line to board a truck heading to Batil refugee camp July 15, 2012 in Jamam camp, South Sudan. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

According to the study by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council, natural disasters forced 32.4 million people to flee last year, with the overwhelming majority (98 percent) due to climate- and weather-related events. While most of the victims live in developing nations, 2012 also saw an increase in environmental refugees in wealthy countries, particularly in the United States.

The report establishes that most of the damage was caused by severe flooding, with India and Nigeria suffering the brunt of the destruction. India, in particular, experienced repeated flooding during its long monsoon season. Africa suffered a record high in 2012, with 8.2 million people displaced because of natural disasters.

The study points out that both the intensity and the frequency of natural disasters are cause for concern as climate change is projected to continue to spur recurrent tragedies. According to the report, multiple displacement events occurred in three-quarters of the countries affected.

The U.S. experienced one of the worst instances of disaster-induced displacement in 2012 after Hurricane Sandy forced 776,000 people out of their homes. As the reports states, however, rich countries are much better equipped to recover from such events, thus limiting the effects on local populations.

"In the U.S. following Hurricane Sandy, most of those displaced were able to find refuge in adequate temporary shelter while displaced from their own homes," Clare Spurrell, Chief Spokesperson for IDMC, said in a press release. "Compare this to communities in Haiti, where hundreds of thousands are still living in makeshift tents over three years after the 2010 earthquake mega-disaster, and you see a very different picture."

Conversely, the damage by disasters on poorer nations tends to be exacerbated by other factors such as poverty, hunger, and violence, "resulting in a 'perfect storm' of risk factors that lead to displacement."

In order to improve government response to natural disasters, the IDMC report recommends greater data collection on the less visible among the environmental refugees -- those populations that may not have official evacuation centers and refugee camps at their aid.

As Spurrell said, "We need to know more about those who seek refuge with families and friends, people who are repeatedly displaced by smaller disasters, or those who are stuck in prolonged displacement following a disaster -- not just those that make headlines."

Some of the worst displacements of 2012:

Floods And Landslides, Japan: 250,000 displaced - A collapsed house lies in the Hoshino River in Yame City, Fukuoka prefecture on July 16, 2012 following four days of torrential rainfall. (KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)

Rainy Season Floods, Niger: 530,000 displaced - Local residents carry their belongings as they evacuate their homes in Niamey, the capital of Niger, on August 19, 2012 after flooding caused by the Niger River. (BOUREIMA HAMA/AFP/Getty Images)

Hurricane Sandy, United States:  776,000 displaced - Homes sit smoldering after Hurricane Sandy on October 30, 2012 in the Breezy Point Neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Twin Typhoons Saola And Damrey/Floods, China: 867,000 displaced - This picture taken on August 6, 2012 shows rescuers evacuating a young girl from her flooded home after a storm following Typhoon Saola hit Shiyan, in central China's Hubei province, leaving 14 dead. (STR/AFP/GettyImages)

Monsoon Floods (2nd Period), China: 1,420,000 displaced - This picture taken on July 6, 2012 shows visitors gathering to watch giant gushes of water being released from the Xiaolangdi dam to clear up the sediment-laden Yellow river and to prevent localized flooding, in Jiyuan, central China's Henan province. (STR/AFP/GettyImages)

Floods/Monsoon And Typhoon Effects, Philippines: 1,553,000 displaced - A girl is submerged in the water outside her home next to the swollen Pampanga River August 15, 2012 in Bulacan, Philippines. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Monsoon Floods, Pakistan: 1,857,000 displaced - Pakistani flood affected villagers seek refuge on a dry patch in the flood-hit Jacobabad district of Sindh province on September 17, 2012. (SHAHID ALI/AFP/Getty Images)

Typhoon Pablo (Bopha), Philippines: 1,932,000 displaced - This photo taken on December 29, 2012 shows a father and his children collecting coconuts among debris swept ashore at the height of Typhoon Bopha in Cateel in Davao Oriental province. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Monsoon Floods (2nd Period), India: 2,000,000 displaced - Villagers paddle their boat near submerged houses in a village near Kaziranga National Park on September 27, 2012. (STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)

Last March, a study by the Asian Development Bank warned of the risk of environmental-induced migration, particularly in high-density, coastal regions. Citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of 2,000 scientists, the report also pointed to the vulnerability of poorer populations with limited resources and mobility to escape such repeated disasters. - Huffington Post.

MONUMENTAL CRISIS: NGO Warns of Disaster in the Horn of Africa!

Concern Worldwide, Ireland’s largest humanitarian agency, has warned that the current drought in the Horn of Africa, which is already affecting 10 million people, and has been described as the worst food crisis facing the world right now, is reaching a tipping point.

Successive droughts have left people without access to water and food, killed livestock, and led to a surge in food prices. Concern staff on the ground in Somalia report that people are travelling for weeks with no possessions in order to reach help in urban areas and neighboring countries. “People who have lost everything have arrived in Mogadishu for assistance, but for some it’s too late,” warns Sarah Robinson, from Concern Worldwide, Somalia. “A combination of hunger and despair mean that many people simply go to sleep and do not have the energy to wake up.

This has potential to be as bad as anything since 1991,” she added, referring to a major famine which killed an estimated 250,000 people and left two million displaced. In a press release issued on Wednesday, the humanitarian agency said malnutrition levels are among the highest in the world with 30 per cent of children suffering from malnutrition in many areas of the south. Concern is reporting outbreaks of measles and diarrhoea which, added to malnutrition, are leading to deaths of many children in the areas where they work. With 25 years’ experience in Somalia, Concern is one of the few international agencies currently working on the ground. Concern has been responding to the needs of this drought emergency since its onset in late 2010 reaching over 100,000 people with clean water, food and nutritional care. - BK Choices.

MONUMENTAL CRISIS: African Horn in 'Worst Drought' in 60 Years!

A UN spokeswoman said on Tuesday that some areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda are seeing "one of the driest years since 1950/51," due to two consecutive years of low rainfall.

The worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, the UN said yesterday. More than 10 million people are now affected in drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and the situation is deteriorating, it said. "Two consecutive poor rainy seasons have resulted in one of the driest years since 1950/51 in many pastoral zones," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said. "There is no likelihood of improvement [in the situation] until 2012," she added. Food prices have risen substantially in the region, pushing many moderately poor households over the edge, she said.

A UN map of food security in the eastern Horn of Africa shows large areas of central Kenya and Somalia in the "emergency" category, one phase before what the organisation classifies as catastrophe/famine – the fifth and worst category. Child malnutrition rates in the worst affected areas are more than double the emergency threshold of 15 per cent and are expected to rise, Ms Byrs said. High mortality rates among children are also reported. Drought and fighting are driving ever greater numbers of Somalis from their homeland, with more than 20,000 arriving in Kenya in just the past two weeks, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said. It voiced alarm at the dramatic rise, noting the average monthly outflow had been about 10,000 so far this year. - The Independent.