UN declares famine in 3 more areas of Somalia

The United Nations on Wednesday declared a famine in three more areas of Somalia and warned the situation would worsen in the coming months. "Both the prevalence of acute malnutrition and rates of crude mortality have surpassed famine thresholds" in the southern and central regions, the UN said. They join two other zones deemed last month to have famine conditions. "A humanitarian emergency persists across all other regions of southern Somalia, and tens of thousands of excess deaths have already occurred," according to a statement from the organization''s affiliate Famine Early Warning Systems (FEWS) Network, which also cautioned that the humanitarian response remained "inadequate." "Famine is expected to spread across all regions of the south in the coming four to six weeks and is likely to persist until at least December 2011," FEWS said.