Famine in southern Somalia

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization FAO said on Friday that southern Somalia is facing another crisis in food shortage following the eruption of fighting among the warring Somali factions.

News reports quoted the FAO, which takes Rome as a headquarters, as saying in a statement that some 1.6 million persons were deprived of humanitarian aid as result of the rival armed gangs which are spread across the country, as well as the drought which hit the region and damaged agricultural crops.

The FAO asked for offering more urgent aid to Somalia, noting that starvation in Somalia causes the death of 20 persons everyday.