Charities criticise rich countries’ “shameful” response to famine in Horn of Africa

Aid workers gathered in Rome this week to urge a decisive international response to the famine in the Horn of Africa.

“The catastrophic situation demands massive and urgent international aid,” said Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, which hosted Monday’s emergency meeting of UN aid agencies and leading charities.

An estimated 3.7 million people in Somalia—around a third of the population—are on the brink of starvation and millions more in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda have been struck by the worst drought in the region in 60 years.

Officials in Rome said the UN had received $1bn …