Drought and violence

More than 11 million people in the Horn of Africa face starvation, the result of a particularly cruel mix of political turmoil and the worst drought in 60 years. The famine has caught much of the world off-guard. Hunger relief agencies are scrambling, and donors have been slow to respond.

The crisis was foreseen: Repeated drought in recent decades has been making the largely pastoral life in the drylands of East Africa unsustainable. Climate change is expected to further dry out the region. And the worst hit areas are in Somalia, a nation trapped for years in a pit of civil war, poverty, piracy and radical religion. The extremist al-Shabab movement has blocked famine aid to areas in the south and prevented residents from fleeing to find help elsewhere.

Earth Institute director and reputed economist Jeffrey Sachs has underscored the urgency of the need for emergency aid: A billion dollars or more is needed, "equal to $1 dollar from each person in the high-income world."

"The Horn of Africa is the world's most vulnerable region, beset by extreme poverty, hunger, and global climate change, notably a drying and warming of the climate during the past quarter century. These scourges are leading to the spread of violence and war, and war is contributing to global instability. Unless we confront the challenges of the Horn of Africa at their root causes — the poverty and vulnerability of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist populations — we will face a burgeoning violence in the Horn of Africa, Yemen, and beyond," he writes in The Guardian.

Some experts have cited the rise in food grains, especially corn, directly to the US diversion of the same for ethanol. Caught between food and energy the world looks poised for tough times.