Hundreds die as Somalia faces famine

A devastating drought is displacing thousands of families in the Horn of Africa and killing vulnerable and weak children.Famine now even threatens Somalia's capital as the camps on the city's outskirts swell with exhausted new arrivals.

One malnutrition treatment centre is filled with anxious mothers and their malnourished children.It is seeing the highest admission rates to its hunger treatment centres since it began working in Somalia in 1992, with admissions of severely malnourished children up 55% from last year.More broadly, at least 448 people died at outpatient and in-patient malnutrition treatment centres across Somalia this year through April.More than 200,000 people in Somalia face "catastrophic hunger and starvation, a drastic increase from the 81,000 forecast in April," a joint statement by UN agencies said on Monday.