Wednesday May 10, 2017
This edition of the program is about the humanitarian crisis in Somalia as Somalis are struggling with drought, famine, outbreaks of diseases, malnourished children, accumulated debt and a host of other problems.
With areas of the country gripped by a crippling drought, one million Somali children need urgent treatment or face acute malnutrition and 350,000 are at imminent risk of starvation.
But could urgent relief be currently blocked by Somalia's crippling debt? Are the hands of the leaders in this chaotic nation tied by financial deals made decades ago that still impact one of the poorest countries in the world to this day?
As hundreds of thousands of Somalis make critical choices about how much to eat every day, a crucial reason for the country's ongoing situation may well be the huge debt that continues to cripple the East African nation.
The people of Somalia are once again staring down the barrel of a crisis both environmental and man-made. With external debt running at some 5 billion dollars or roughly 80% of GDP, Somalia is almost guaranteed never to be in a situation to fully repay this amount. With the country's political and economic situation in need of urgent stability, are global financial leaders almost abandoning Somalia?