(16 Mar 1999) English/Nat
Around a million people in Southern Somalia are facing famine as the area struggles to cope after its third consecutive drought.

But humanitarian relief is being hampered by gun-running warlords who control the region after the collapse of the central government.

Queuing for food is not just a way of life in southern Somalia, but rather a life line without which many of these people would die.

And along with the drought has come another crisis. With no central government, warlords have taken over - controlling the distribution of food with a culture of hired guns.

In Somalia, bringing food to the hungry has become almost a military mission. But for the thousands of starving people the sacks of grain and seeds brought by humanitarian agencies are their only hope.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"A lot of people are very hungry, they are very thin, they are surviving off a lot of the relief food we are bringing in, and right now they really wouldn't be able to cope without some sort of food coming in every month so we come in every month to make sure they have something to eat."
SUPER CAPTION: Michele Quintaglie, W-F-P Information Officer

Somalia last hit the international headlines in 1992 when drought killed around a hundred thousand people.

If the rains don't come this year, the World Food Programme says another disaster on that scale is inevitable.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We really have a limited window of opportunity left, there's only a few more weeks to get the seeds in because the rains will start. If those seeds aren't in the ground within the next four to six weeks then we are definitely looking at probably a failed crop and that will spell lots of problems for these people.
SUPER CAPTION: Michele Quintaglie, W-F-P Information Officer

International aid to Somalia is dwindling. Donor fatigue is one factor but relief organisations are still plagued by periodic kidnappings and murders.

And hundreds of thousands of tons of food have been looted by warring militias, leaving the people to fend for themselves against the natural disasters that continue to plague this country.

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