UN Estimates 260,000 Died in Famine in Somalia

Between 2010 and 2012

Between 2010 and 2012, more than a quarter of a million people died in the famine in Somalia—in part because the world was too slow to react, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia said Thursday.

Half of the 258,000 Somalis who died in the famine were children younger than 5, Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

The report, jointly commissioned by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, is the first scientific study on deaths in the crisis.