What were the causes of the Somalian Famine in 2011?

1. Rainfall

1.1. Although there are two distinct rainy seasons in Somalia, in the year 2010, rain never hit southern Somalia, the breadbasket of the country.

1.2. As the crops failed, food prices rose. Prices spiked in 2007-2008 and had not returned to pre-2007 level yet.

1.3. Areas where seasonal rains did not fall and commodity prices spiked fell victim to famine, and are seeing massive human migration.

2. Testimonies

2.1. Halima Iman Ahmed is a 65 year old woman born 14 years before the independence of Somalia. She has experienced droughts in the past but managed to stay in her village. However, the famine in 2011 was the first case in which she was forced to leave without any cattle alive.

2.2. Suroro Mohamed Ali is an 18 year old mother. She has never been to school and spent her time looking after livestock, raising vegetables. Facing food scarcity, unable to food her children, she was forced to head to Dadaab for a refugee camp.

2.3. Maolim Adow Maolim was a teacher at Dusgi. He enjoyed his work but the revenue wasn't enough to feed him, thus forcing him to work on agriculture part-time. When al-Shabab took control of all of his property as well as when the drought hit, he wasn't able to feed his two wives and nine children forcing his family to be sent off to the camp.

3. Life in the Camps

3.1. There are not nearly enough tents for all who arrive. Emaciated refugees construct makeshift shelters out of branches and scraps of plastic.

3.2. Some are raped and robbed along the way, others are chased by hyenas.

3.3. In the refugee camp, Save the Children have organised for the children to stay with a foster mother

3.4. Dadaab camp is already grotesquely overcrowded and becoming more so by the day. There are insufficient latrines and conditions are becoming insanitary. The infant mortality rate has tripled in recent months.

3.5. Beyond the fences of the camp, the drought has ravaged many more lives – an estimated 10 million people will need food assistance, according to the UN World Food Programme.

4. UN Classifications

4.1. Phase 4, a 'Humanitarian Emergency', is when up to two people per 10,000 are dying each day, when acute malnutrition rates are between 15 per cent and 30 per cent, almost all livestock have been lost and there is less than 7.5 litres of water available each day per person.

4.2. Phase 5, 'Famine/Humanitarian Catastrophe', means more than two people per 10,000 die each day, acute malnutrition rates are above 30 per cent, all livestock is dead, and there is less than 2,100 kcal of food and 4 litres of water available per person per day.

4.3. Other factors in a famine include large-scale and concentrated movement of people from their homes looking for help, and widespread armed conflict.

5. Food Security

5.1. The year before the famine declaration (July 2010-June 2011) was the driest in the Eastern in the Horn of Africa in 60 years

5.2. This caused widespread livestock deaths, the smallest cereal harvest since the 1991-94 civil war, and a major drop in labor demand, which reduced household income.

5.3. The level of humanitarian assistance delivered in southern Somalia in 2010 and much of 2011 was very low, especially compared to 2008/09 when food aid accounted for a significant proportion of national cereal supply

5.4. In many areas, conflict and insecurity impeded humanitarian assistance and access.

5.5. As a result, at a time when drought made poor households more market dependent, reduced supplies drove staple food prices to extreme levels.

5.6. In Bay region, for example, the price of red sorghum rose 240 percent between June 2010 and June 2011.