The United Nations has called an emergency meeting to discuss the devastating famine in the horn of Africa. Despite massive droughts, resources and humanitarian aid is scarce as rebel groups in Somalia forbid outside aid organizations from entering. As the food shortage increases without attention in the form of aid or funding, violence will inevitably escalate as victims literally fight for their lives. 

Nation contributing editor and author of Tropic of Chaos Christian Parenti joined Democracy Now! alongside the UN’s Kiki Gbeho this morning to discuss the dire state of the crisis in the horn of Africa. 

For more on the politics of extreme weather, read Parenti’s report, Pakistan One Year After the Floods.

—Anna Lekas Miller