Mohamed Sheikh Nor / AP Photo
The first emergency shipment of food and nutritional supplements arrived in Somalia, a U.N. official said. A plane carrying 10 tons of supplies was the first load of emergency aid to arrive in the drought-stricken country since the U.N. declared a famine last week. It will be given to some of the 18,000 children suffering from malnutrition, a number that is expected to grow to up to 25,000. Aid groups said they will be unable to reach all of the country’s 2.2 million people who need assistance, especially those located in Somalia’s insecure southern territories. Al Shabab, the country’s largest militant group, said it would not allow aid into the areas it controls. The World Food Program estimates that more than 11 million people need assistance across drought-plagued eastern Africa.