Washington Post examines conditions within Mogadishu hospital

The Washington Post looks at the conditions within Banadir Hospital in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. "The scenes ... reflect the immense challenge facing this Horn of Africa nation, already besieged by multiple woes, from civil war to radical Islamist militants to a weak transitional government incapable of governing effectively, despite massive support from the United States and its allies," the newspaper writes (Raghavan, 9/7).

In related news, the U.N. News Centre reports that average to above-average levels of rainfall could return to Somalia over the next three months, but "there may not yet be much easing of the drought there since [those] rains are a relatively small part of the annual total," according to the U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Months of drought, combined with 20 years of fighting, have pushed more than 3.2 million people to the edge of starvation, according to the news service (9/7).