AFRICA – An unnamed UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s representative in Kenya has said to the Associated Press that the situation in Somalia could become “simply unbearable” in the coming weeks if people continue to abandon their homes in search of food.

The food crisis in the Horn of Africa is escalating, with 12 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda requiring emergency assistance, said FAO.

Parts of southern Somalia are suffering from famine.

Over the past year, the region has faced two poor rainy seasons, resulting in one of the driest years since 1950. In addition, high local cereal prices, excessive livestock mortality, conflict and restricted humanitarian access in some areas is worsening the situation for Somalis.

A high-level operational meeting has been called for 18 August 2011 at FAO’s Rome headquarters to agree on urgent measures in response to the worsening crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Links to: FAO, the Associated Press

Locusts are a recurring problem in western Africa, from May to August, but this year hopes appear to be high that a new $13 million, four-year injection from the World Bank for the six-year-old Palucp programme will improve the situation. The swarms of insects can devastate staple crops in a short time. The Africa Project to Combat Locust Invasions, known by its French acronym Palucp, connects seven countries in order to provide technical assistance and training: Mali, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Chad.

Locust Watch, part of the Food & Agriculture Organization in Rome, reports 3 May that locust populations are currently dropping due to dryness in several regions in Africa.

Links to other sites: allAfrica, background, FAO (Fr)

The UN’s world-food price index rose to 231 in January, a 3.4 percent increase over December and a record highest level since the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) began tracking prices. This is the seventh consecutive monthly record-breaking rise, showing a continuing trend that is particularly worrisome for poorer countries that must import much of their food and poor households where a large percentage of the family budget goes to food.

The January increases are due mainly to rising corn and wheat prices worldwide, which nevertheless fall short of a high for cereals in 2008, while meat prices remained stable and rice prices decreased slightlty, a seasonal factor because of harvests in some countries in recent weeks.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told journalists at a press conference in Washington Thursday 3 February that the increases are due to rapid growth in developing countries and not to the Fed’s currency management policies.

Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Mail & Guardian, S Africa, MSNBC, Telegraph, UK

The world food security conference in Rome, Italy closed 18 November with promises to invest more in agriculture and “to eradicate hunger at the earliest date”, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which hosted the three-day event. FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf expressed his disappointment at the lack of measurable targets and specific deadlines.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that each day 17,000 children die of hunger in the world. He urged immediate action on long-term remedies to hunger in the world, noting that there was enough food in the world for everybody.

The Minister for Food and Agriculture of Ghana, Kwesi Ahwoi, reminded the conference that the last food security summit in 1996 had pledged to cut the world’s hungry by half, to 420 million by 2015. The conference was told that more than one billion people go to bed hungry every night.

Links to other sites:FAO media site, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Guide2.co.nz