The last famine in 2011 killed over 260,000 people. “Somalia is on the brink of its second famine in six years, with drought already killing people in the north and crisis looming on a catastrophic scale, the United Nations said on Thursday. ‘In six months, we’ll be facing a catastrophe and a famine on a scale we cannot imagine, if we don’t act right now,’ the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Peter de Clercq, said in a press conference in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. ‘We have the first anecdotal evidence of deaths, in Somaliland in particular, as a result of the drought,’ he said, referring to the semi-autonomous northern part of the country. The majority of the population in Somalia now needs emergency aid, as the number of people short of food has risen to 6.2 million from 5 million in September, the U.N. said.” (Reuters http://bit.ly/2jC2w2g)
Hero of the day: Yaser Harawi wasn’t too happy when his father sent him to study in Serbia rather than the U.S. or Canada. Years later, the Syria-born doctor thinks it was a touch of fate. The 51-year-old from Damascus, who’s lived in Serbia for more than 30 years, has found meaning in helping Syrian and other migrants passing through the Balkan country in search of a better future in Western Europe. (AP https://yhoo.it/2kZ7NOo)
Here’s How the Middle East is Reacting to Trump’s Travel Ban (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/2kZobhT)
2,300 Miles Away from Washington, Americans on the Border Say a Wall Wont Work (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2kxK7mv)
Deportation plan could plunge millions into poverty across the Americas (Humanosphere http://bit.ly/2kZC3Zp)