Counting Down: Nine days to 103DEC / Saturday 30 July - originally posted 21.7.2011

On Saturday 30 July, 103 The Eye is dedicating the entire day's broadcasting to raising awareness of the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal.

We've had warm weather across the East Midlands in recent weeks, but there's still food in the shops and water in our taps, rivers and streams but In the Horn of Africa there have been months of drought followed by the severest famine in living memory. In a daily worsening situation, millions of people are facing death.

So 103 The Eye is supporting the Disasters Emergency Committee and encouraging everyone to help by donating direct to the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal.

All day on Saturday 30 July we'll be broadcasting interviews and information about the situation in Africa and we're asking you, our listeners, to share the day with us by telling us your life stories through your favorite music. Details about LIFE TRACKS are available here, on 103 The Eye and in the local press over the coming week. 

DON'T WAIT TO DONATE! 

But don't wait to donate - your money can be put to good use right now. Just follow the instructions in red on the side bar and help the DEC's member organisations to save lives immediately.

Saturday 30 July will be DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal day on 103 The Eye. We look forward to sharing the great day with you!

Originally posted 21.7.2011

 

UN calls Emergency meeting: "This is a Children's Famine" - originally posted 25.7.2011

In recent days famine has been declared in two areas of Somalia. 

Eye-witnesses report that thousands have already died.

Concern has been expressed that Somalia's rebel forces are exacerbating the humanitarian difficulties and refusing access by some agencies, fortunately not those associated with the DEC.

Today an emergency meeting was held in Rome at the UN's Food & Agricultural Organisation, called by the French Government which currently chairs the G20.

Josette Sheeran, Head of the World Food Programme, was in Somalia last week and reported to the meeting that half a million children will die in, "The worst food crisis many of us have ever seen." 

She said, "This is a children's famine."

THE NEED IS OBVIOUS & OVERWHELMING. 
PLEASE DON'T WAIT, DONATE NOW!

 Originally posted 25.7.2011

DEC 'warmly supports' 103DEC Crisis Appeal by 103 The Eye - originally posted 30.7.2011

"This is the first famine in a century that should never have known famine. 

"Thousands of people have already died and millions are on the edge of survival. 

"The most vulnerable are the children and the elderly. 

"Yet a little money makes a real difference to these precarious lives, which is why the Disasters Emergency Committee warmly supports the all-day East Africa Crisis Appeal by 103 The Eye on Saturday 30 July. 

"Thank you and your listeners for helping those in so much need."

Brendan Paddy

Communications Manager

Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)

Originally posted 30.7.2011

UN warns Somalia drought worse: 750,000 could die as 12million people need food aid - originally posted 5.9.2011

As many as 750,000 people could die as Somalia's drought worsens in the coming months, the UN has warned, declaring a famine in a new area.

The UN says tens of thousands of people have died after what is said to be East Africa's worst drought for 60 years.

Bay becomes the sixth area to be officially declared a famine zone - mostly in parts of southern Somalia controlled by the Islamist al-Shabab.

Some 12 million people across the region need food aid, the UN says.

The situation in the Bay region was worse than anything previously recorded, said senior UN's technical adviser Grainne Moloney.

"The rate of malnutrition [among children] in Bay region is 58%. This is a record rate of acute malnutrition," she told journalists in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

This is almost double the rate at which a famine is declared.

"In total, 4 million people are in crisis in Somalia, with 750,000 people at risk of death in the coming four months in the absence of adequate response," the UN's Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) says.

Half of those who have already died are children, it says.

Neighbouring Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have also been affected by the severe lack of rain.

For full story see BBC News.

See also BBC News - East Africa Hunger Crisis.  

Originally posted 5.9.2011