GENEVA: The United Nations said Friday that international food assistance to Somalia was the only reason why famine was being kept at bay in the troubled country.
The UN’s World Food Programme said the situation was dire and the nation was now in a desperate race against time to avert famine, having suffered four consecutive failed rainy seasons since the end of 2020 and with a fifth underway.
But WFP warned that if the world waited for famine to be formally declared before taking action, it would already be too late.
“Somalia is absolutely not out of danger yet. We remain extremely concerned about the dire situation across the country and we’re in a desperate race against time,” WFP’s Somalia deputy country director Laura Turner told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Mogadishu.
“If the situation continues to worsen... then famine is projected before the end of this year.”
Turner said that conditions were indeed expected to deteriorate as the rains have failed to materialize in the current season.
Meanwhile the situation could also worsen if the progressive scale-up of assistance is not maintained.
Famine is likely to strike in the Baidoa and Burhakaba districts of the Bay region, in inland southern Somalia.
Turner said famine had not yet been declared because three indicators had not been reached.
“One is extreme lack of food, the second is acute malnutrition and the third is mortality,” she explained.
“The malnutrition rates are truly horrifying... the mortality rates are only increasing. It’s actually only the provision of food assistance that is keeping famine at bay.”
Food costs are rising because Somalia is heavily dependent on Ukraine and Russia for its wheat imports.
“Food assistance alone will not prevent large-scale loss of life,” Turner said, as disease, poor hygiene and dehydration would prove fatal.
She said WFP required $300 million to sustain its operations for the next six months, when the next potential rains might come.
Food aid staving off famine in Somalia: UN
https://arab.news/rn3dh
Food aid staving off famine in Somalia: UN
- But WFP warns that if the world waited for famine to be formally declared before taking action, it would already be too late
Britain needs ‘AI stress tests’ for financial services, lawmakers say
- Lawmakers urge AI-specific stress tests for financial firms
LONDON: Britain’s financial watchdogs are not doing enough to stop artificial intelligence from harming consumers or destabilising markets, a cross-party group of lawmakers said on Tuesday, urging regulators to move away from what it called a “wait and see” approach.
In a report on AI in financial services, the Treasury Committee said the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England should start running AI-specific stress tests to help firms prepare for market shocks triggered by automated systems.
The committee also called on the FCA to publish detailed guidance by the end of 2026 on how consumer protection rules apply to AI, and on the extent to which senior managers should be expected to understand the systems they oversee.
“Based on the evidence I’ve seen, I do not feel confident that our financial system is prepared if there was a major AI-related incident and that is worrying,” committee chair Meg Hillier said in a statement.
TECHNOLOGY CARRIES ‘SIGNIFICANT RISKS’
A race among banks to adopt agentic AI, which unlike generative AI can make decisions and take autonomous action, runs new risks for retail customers, the FCA told Reuters late last year.
About three-quarters of UK financial firms now use AI. Companies are deploying the technology across core functions, from processing insurance claims to performing credit assessments.
While the report acknowledged the benefits of AI, it warned the technology also carried “significant risks” including opaque credit decisions, the potential exclusion of vulnerable consumers through algorithmic tailoring, fraud, and the spread of unregulated financial advice through AI chatbots.
Experts contributing to the report also highlighted threats to financial stability, pointing to the reliance on a small group of US tech giants for AI and cloud services. Some also noted that AI-driven trading systems may amplify herding behavior in markets, risking a financial crisis in a worst-case scenario.
An FCA spokesperson said the regulator welcomed the focus on AI and would review the report. The regulator has previously indicated it does not favor AI-specific rules due to the pace of technological change.
The BoE did not respond to a request for comment.
Hillier told Reuters that increasingly sophisticated forms of generative AI were influencing financial decisions. “If something has gone wrong in the system, that could have a very big impact on the consumer,” she said.
Separately, Britain’s finance ministry appointed Starling Bank CIO Harriet Rees and Lloyds Banking Group ‘s Rohit Dhawan as “AI Champions” to help steer AI adoption in financial services.
