Letters to the Editor: Long-term solutions for food insecurities

Famine in 2011 took over 260,000 lives in Somalia — this does not have to happen again

People try to fill water bottles in a displacement camp for people impacted by drought in Baidoa, Somalia last month. Picture: Ed Ram/Getty Images

We (139 signatories, list of which is with the Editor) welcome recent attention in the Irish Examiner to the global food crisis — ‘Horn of Africa: The developed world must now show solidarity with those on the brink’ (October 22). We would like to encourage further in-depth, non-sensational, and independent reporting in this and other media outlets.

As a result of a delayed global response, the 2011 famine claimed the lives of more than 260,000 people in Somalia, half of them children under five. This does not have to happen again.