US envoy to UN visits Somalia, meets president

The first U.S. Cabinet member to visit Somalia since 2015 urged the world’s distracted donors Sunday to give immediate help to a country facing deadly famine, which she calls “the ultimate failure of the international community.”

Speaking in a meeting with the Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Thomas-Greenfield said while a famine had been "averted the last time around" that efforts to combat it should be ramped up in order to avoid such an incident in March-April this year.

While the latest data assessment released last year found that Somalia had not met the benchmarks for a formal famine declaration, the U.N. and U.S. have made clear that the limited humanitarian aid has only delayed the worst.