Roma, (www.Bartamaha.com):-The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization will hold its latest session on the humanitarian food crisis in the Horn of Africa on Thursday in Rome, Italy.

“Nowhere are high food prices, poverty and instability combining to produce tragic suffering more than in the Horn of Africa,” World Bank President Robert Zoellick noted Monday.

The East African region is in the throes of prolonged drought. This drought is particularly tough in conflict areas experiencing large refugee flows. The drought leads to famine and a humanitarian disaster impacting an estimated 12 million people. This situation has been made worst by the staggeringly high food prices dominating many commodity markets since 2008.

“The (FAO) meeting will take stock of the evolving situation, needs and shortfalls in the crisis, and identify concrete programs, projects and other actions by governments in the Horn of Africa and their humanitarian and development partners that will address both immediate requirements and the underlying causes of the crisis,” The FAO said in a statement announcing the meeting.

In its latest global price report released August 9 in Rome, FAO found international prices for wheat were down in July for the third straight month, but prices for rice were up. Corn prices were off slightly.

“In Eastern Africa, cereal prices are at generally high levels, with new peaks reached in several countries. Prices of milk are at record or very high levels in most countries of the region,” the FAO specialists reported in their latest monthly price monitor report.

In Somalia, one of the affected countries in the Horn, prices for domestically produced staples like corn and sorghum were down last month, but still held at “very high levels” on a year over year basis – in the case of corn up 150% from 2010. The country was experiencing similar difficulty with milk prices.

“In the most affected south-eastern Somali region, milk prices in June were twice their levels of a year earlier,” FAO reported.

Food prices in Kenya reached new highs. In Ethiopia corn prices were up in July. Milk prices have “surged” in the country, according to the FAO.

In its latest report on global food prices released Monday (15), the World Bank found that “prices are at high levels and when combined with continued volatility, put the poorest people in the developing world at continued risk.”

“Over the last three months, reportedly 29,000 children under five have died in Somalia and 600,000 children in the region remain at risk in the ongoing crisis that is threatening the lives and livelihoods of more than 12 million people,” the Washington, DC based World Bank reported.

FAO said Thursday’s meeting in Rome will follow-up on an emergency ministerial session on the African situation held July 25. Thursday’s session will prepare the ground work for upcoming UN and African Union conferences at which governments will make pledges of financial support to tackle the emergency.

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