Starvation kills over 100 as famine hits Somalia

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The UN has said 5 million people are at risk, and thousands have already begun streaming into the capital in search of food. Aid efforts are being hampered by a lack of international response and conflict on the ground.

Somalia's prime minister announced Saturday that 110 people have died of hunger in the past 48 hours as a severe drought threatens millions of people across the country.

The death toll announcement comes just four days after Somalia's government declared the drought a national disaster - threatening the Horn of Africa nation with full-blown famine. The United Nations estimates that 5 million people across the country are in need of aid.

Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire's comments came during a meeting with the Somali National Drought Committee. The death toll he announced is all from the Bay region in the southwest part of the country.

Somalia was one of four regions singled out by the UN secretary-general last month in a $4.4 billion aid appeal to avert catastrophic hunger and famine , along with northeast Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. All are connected by a thread of violent conflict, the UN chief said.

UN humanitarian coordinator Stephen O'Brien is expected to visit Somalia in the coming days.
Local and international aid agencies are being overwhelmed in the capital. More than 7,000 people recently checked into one feeding center in Mogadishu.

The drought is the first crisis for Somalia's newly elected leader, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Previous droughts and a quarter-century of conflict, including ongoing attacks by extremist group al-Shabab, have left the country fragile.