East Africa, Eritrea and the relief effort in Somalia

East Africa has again dominated as we continue to bring you the latest coverage and analysis on development

• Lucy Lamble
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 23 August 2011 19.34 BST
• Article history

Muslim clerics walk along a dirt road outside Dadaab, eastern Kenya. A forthcoming interactive will look at the relief effort in the area. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP
While the Horn of Africa crisis has continued to shape the debate on the Poverty matters blog over the past fortnight, there has been no shortage of other issues for reflection, with post-Gaddafi Libya, the way forward for the World Bank, and the situation in Eritrea among a host of other topics discussed on the site.
East Africa crisis
Africa's leaders have been criticised for their slow response to drought warnings, but the public have got behind private donations – catch up on what the African press is saying about the crisis. Laila Ali introduces us to Dr Hawa Abdi, who runs a hospital in one of Somalia's most dangerous areas but refuses to be bowed by clan politics. And is Djibouti the forgotten country in the crisis? The Food and Agriculture Organisation has met in Rome to take stock of the disaster and assess how to avoid a repeat. The World Food Programme insists the scale of reported Somalia food aid theft is implausible. Humanitarian aid agencies are forced in some cases to use costly air delivery or ship food to less convenient ports due to the risk of piracy. Donor aid is growing (data updated each Monday), and this week the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation countries pledged $350m (£121m). On visits to Mogadishu DfID's Andrew Mitchell warned that up to 400,000 children could die if urgent action is not taken to address a situation the Turkish PM, Recep Tayyip Ergodan, has described as a "litmus test" for humanity. Vinod Thomas asks how the region can be better prepared for recurrent drought, while Jo Khinmaung, noting that aid agencies were warned of the escalating situation long before famine developed, argues that when donors delay in the face of crisis, there is a heavy price to be paid. And after a marked increase in severe child malnutrition in the slums of Nairobi, Concern Worldwide has set up cash transfer support.