The UN World Food Program (WFP) will send an emergency airlift to send food to Mogadishu, Somalia, to aid child victims of famine.

Over the next 10 days, the WFP hopes to fly some 80 tons of food for children, including 14 tons this week according to WFP spokesman David Orr.

UN and Somali community across the globe organize aid efforts

After the United Nations declared an official famine there on July 20, members of the Somali community in King County — which has the third-largest Somali population in the U.S. — have been organizing grass-roots efforts to gather aid for those suffering from famine and violence in the Horn of Africa.

An estimated 11 million people are affected by this severe famine crisis in northeastern Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, and East Africans here have joined together to respond to the devastation in a way they never have before, said Subeida Mukhtar, who lives in Seattle. Mukh

Endless Hunger, Famine and Civil War in Africa

Hunger and exodus have once more taken over the African Horn, where some 12 million people are depending on humanitarian aid, which is necessary for easing the extreme situation resulting from drought, and in the case of Somalia, from an internal war.

WFP spokesman Orr stated that the WFP had been regularly sending food by ship to the port of Mogadishu and distributing it through several feeding centers, aiding more than 18,000 children.

The food shortage grew worse with the growing number of displaced people heading towards Mogadishu, he added.

So many people are arriving in the city that the ranks of the needy are growing daily, and the program hopes to feed at least 25,000 children, he informed.

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