As death rates fall in Somalia, the United Nations has downgraded the country’s worst famine in decades on a five-point scale from top level “famine” to level four, “humanitarian emergency.” But the food crisis, which has killed tens of thousands, is still affecting 31 percent of the country’s population, The Associated Press reported. Officially declared a famine in July, Somalia’s woes have been exacerbated by a militant group, al-Shabab, which as recently as last week banned the International Red Cross from operating in southern Somalia. “The gains are fragile,” warned the U.N.’s Mark Bowden, “and will be reversed without continued support.”
