美国国家公共电台 NPR--The U.N. says parts of Somalia may experience famine within months

The U.N. says parts of Somalia may experience famine within months

Transcript¹

Somalia faces a major food crisis and the U.N. warns parts of the country could be in a full famine by April. The crisis is driven by a prolonged drought, terror attacks and a spike² in food prices.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Somalia is facing a major food crisis. And the U.N. warns that parts of the country could experience a full famine by April of next year.

ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:

The crisis in the East African nation is being driven by a prolonged drought, terror attacks by al-Shabaab and a spike in global food prices.

MART?NEZ: NPR's Jason Beaubien is in the southern Somali city of Baidoa, which is one of the places that the U.N. warns could suffer a famine in 2023. Jason, what is happening in that city that makes these experts predict that there's going to be a famine there in the coming months?

JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE³: Well, for one, the food situation is already really dire⁴ here. Baidoa is a city in southwestern Somalia. It's, you know, surrounded by areas controlled by al-Shabaab militants⁵. And it's become a magnet for people who are fleeing from areas where crops have failed repeatedly over the last two years. People are showing up destitute⁶. And now you've got hundreds of thousands of them. They're living in these makeshift camps on the edges of the city. They came hoping for international food aid. But many I've talked to here say that, that aid is incredibly limited if they're getting it at all.

So people are describing begging or gathering⁷ sticks to just sell as firewood to survive, you know? And I'm hearing from people that there's nothing even to go back to in their villages. Their crops have failed. Even their goats are dead. I mean, goats that can survive on just about anything, they're dying because there's no vegetation on the lands that they usually graze on. And aid groups are saying that more desperate, hungry people are showing up at these camps every day.

MART?NEZ: How much, Jason, are the terror attacks - how much of an impact are they having on the current food crisis?

BEAUBIEN: You know, a lot. And in particular because al-Shabaab is controlling a lot of the rural areas that have been hit the hardest by this drought. And al-Shabaab has banned international food aid. And it actually attacks relief agencies as they try to deliver it. Al-Shabaab remains⁸ incredibly powerful in this part of Somalia. And they actually control all of the roads into Baidoa. So even for aid agencies, they can only get their stuff in here by plane. And it's making things incredibly difficult.

MART?NEZ: And it's got to be, also, really difficult for these relief groups to operate there, to actually do things.

BEAUBIEN: Yeah. I mean, exactly. You know, in the midst of this dire food crisis, in which children are already starving, children are already dying here, getting more food aid in has become just this incredibly complex process. Somalia is already one of the poorest countries in the world. Now they're in the midst of the worst drought they've had in 40 years. And it isn't like, you know, the Somali government simply has stockpiles of grain just sitting around in warehouses⁹ in Mogadishu. Any surge in food that's going to come into this country, it has to come in from outside. Yet, al-Shabaab is battling against that.

At the same time, you've got the war in Ukraine. It's pushed up the cost of grain significantly. Before the war in Ukraine, Somalia got 90% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine. Now wheat here is harder to get. It's more expensive. This is a situation, you know, that's just getting worse by the day, people say. Is it as bad as the famine in 2011 that killed a quarter of a million people here? No, not yet. But, you know, for a mother whose child is emaciated¹⁰ and starving, that doesn't really matter. And the U.N. is warning that this crisis is likely to deepen as less food is grown domestically and getting food from abroad becomes increasingly difficult.

MART?NEZ: NPR's Jason Beaubien is in Baidoa, Somalia, one of the regions projected to be facing a very severe food crisis in the coming year. Jason, thank you.

BEAUBIEN: You're welcome.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

5 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

6 destitute   

adj.缺乏的；穷困的

参考例句：

• They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
• They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。

7 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

10 emaciated   

adj.衰弱的，消瘦的

参考例句：

• A long time illness made him sallow and emaciated.长期患病使他面黄肌瘦。
• In the light of a single candle,she can see his emaciated face.借着烛光，她能看到他的被憔悴的面孔。