On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we’re discussing a New York Times investigation about Somalia’s worsening humanitarian crisis, as drought, conflict, and cuts to USAID and global aid assistance are pushing millions toward extreme hunger and displacement.
According to New York Times correspondent Peter Goodman, last year, the US slashed humanitarian assistance to Somalia to $70 million from $467 million in 2024.
Somalia is also heavily dependent on imports for food, fertilizer, and fuel. With shipping effectively halted in the Strait of Hormuz, prices for those critical goods have roughly doubled. In scores of poor and unstable countries, hunger is increasing as the cost of food rises.
Guest:
Peter Goodman, global economics correspondent for The New York Times, and author of How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain, and Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World
Resources:
The New York Times: Catastrophe Is Emerging in the World’s Most Vulnerable Places
The New York Times: What the End of Aid Looks Like
