U.N. says 2.1M Somalis need food aid despite decline in number over past six months

"Around 2.1 million Somalis still need food aid and are facing a critical situation despite a fall in the number of people at risk in the last six months, the United Nations said Tuesday," Agence France-Presse reports. "Overall, despite the recent improvements, the humanitarian situation in Somalia remains critical and must remain on the global agenda to avoid the risk of reversing the gains made," Jens Laerke of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, according to the news agency. "In 2011, famine in the country caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people and affected more than four million people, or more than half of the population, according to the U.N. agency's figures," AFP writes (9/11).