NPR

Why It's So Hard To Stop The World's Looming Famines

Millions of people in Yemen and sub-Saharan Africa are facing food shortages and severe malnutrition. Host Audie Cornish talks with Justin Forsyth of UNICEF about the crisis.
A World Food Programme worker stands next to aid parcels that will be distributed to South Sudanese refugees at the airport in Sudan's North Kordofan state. / ASHRAF SHAZLY / Getty Images

It's the famine that not enough people have heard about.

An estimated 20 million people in four countries — Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen — are at risk of famine and starvation. And the word isn't getting out, says Justin Forsyth, a deputy executive director of UNICEF.

Speaking with NPR's Audie Cornish on All Things Considered, he explained that politics and donor fatigue are two of the main causes.

"Politicians around the world are very focused domestically on politics at home, not on international

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