Aid agencies use a five-phase system called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification(IPC) to determine the severity of a food crisis. These five regions of Somalia fall in the Phase 5 category, which means that means more than two people per 10,000 die each day, acute malnutrition rates are above 30 percent, all livestock is dead, and there is less than 2,100 kcal of food and 4 liters of water available per person per day.
http://one.org/blog/2011/07/20/un-declares-famine-in-parts-of-somalia-what-it-means/
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