| DemocracyNow.org - The United Nations has called an emergency meeting to discuss the Horn of Africa drought, which it says has already claimed tens of thousands of lives. Famine was declared in two regions of Somalia on Wednesday where 3.7 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Another 8 million people need food assistance in neighboring countries including Kenya and Ethiopia. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls the situation a "catastrophic combination of conflict, high food prices and drought" and has appealed for immediate aid. Democracy Now! interviews Kiki Gbeho, country head in Somalia for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, by telephone in Nairobi. In New York, Democracy Now! talks to Christian Parenti, author of "Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence." " This was predicted long ago by people on the ground," Parenti says. "It is a combination of war, climate change and very bad policy, particularly an embrace of radical free-market by regional governments that mean the withdrawal of support for pastoralists, the type of people you saw with their dead cattle." For the complete transcript, to download the audio/video podcast, and to see more Democracy Now! reports on climate change and global warming, visit www.democracynow.org. FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE Facebook: www.facebook.com Twitter: @democracynow Subscribe on YouTube: www.youtube.com Daily Email News Digest: www ... |