When people think about the humanitarian crises caused by the nightmare that is Somalia, an effectively ungoverned, stateless society beset by violence, chaos, and grave uncertainty, they tend to think of the effects of that violence. But there is a largely unexplored crisis that looms barely beneath the surface in which such instability means that while violence and war are a factor in the daily lives of many, the lack of a government and infrastructure has exacerbated life on a much more basic level. Food scarcity is an enormous problem in Somalia, made all the worse by population pressure, drought and changing weather patterns and the nonexistence of any sort of government to address these sorts of troubles. Many African states are ill equipped to deal with issues of food scarcity, but where there is no state the people, victims many times over of Somalia’s present wretchedness, have even less of a chance.
