"MOGADISHU - More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering catastrophic food shortages and many are dying of hunger, with that number set to rise to over 700,000 next year, according to an analysis by an alliance of U.N. agencies and aid groups.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which sets the global standard for determining the severity of food crises, said its most acute level, "IPC Phase 5 Famine", had been temporarily averted but things were getting worse.
"They have kept famine outside of the door but nobody knows for how much longer," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson of the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA).
"That people are dying from hunger, there's no doubt about it, but I cannot put a number on it," he told a news briefing in Geneva after the latest IPC analysis on Somalia came out."
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