As grenades claim the lives of Libyan children, a much more deadly foe is killing more than a hundred children each day, according to the United Nations. The UN alsowarned that hundreds of thousands more people may die in the coming months unless they receive urgent help.

The starvation is mostly taking place out of sight of the world media, in areas of southern Somalia under control of violent Islamist insurgents.

Tens of thousands of Somalis are leaving their drought-ravaged homes and trek to Somalia’s capital hoping for help. But delivering food is difficult and dangerous. Even in the government-controlled capital of Somalia, where 9,000 African Union peacekeepers are on patrol, organized theft of truckloads of food aid is rife and shootouts at aid distributions are frequent. It seems that to the militants, food and water are the ‘new money’.

In fact, if one reads through the full report, it emerges that conditions are even worse in areas controlled by the Islamist insurgency, which holds much of southern Somalia. It has forbidden many aid agencies to work in its territory where the famine is most severe, although it had originally indicated that it would allow aid through. Perhaps this was done purposely, in order to boost its own stocks, thieving from the distribution process. Tens of thousands of Somalis already have died this year due to the severe violence, drought and famine, the UN says, and famine has now affected six areas, including four southern Somali regions and two settlements of internally displaced people.

Few foreign journalists have traveled to insurgent-held areas, so the footage that helped galvanize responses to other mass famines, such as the two in Ethiopia, is largely missing. In fact, the UN has received just under 60 % of the $1.1 billion it requested to respond to the emergency.

So far, it’s unclear how much aid can be delivered in insurgent-held areas, by whom, or how it can be tracked. Donors say they do their best to prevent its theft and sale by gunmen, but are reluctant to disclose any details for security reasons.

The UN says around 4 million Somalis need aid, or more than half of the population. In July it was 3.7 million. It is, indeed, a case of “Out of sight, out of mind”. As Libya raged on our doorstep, we joined millions of others in gluing ourselves to our screens. But what happened to our interest in Bahrain, Yemen and the like? Why were we able to mobilize a planet with Band Aid and Live Aid? The answer is simple, because someone cared enough to be rude to Prime Minister of the time, Margaret Thatcher. That man was a Boomtown Rat – Bob Geldoff, the man who grabbed the Iron Lady’s arm and told her that her assumptions about UK state aid powdered milk were completely wrong. She acted on it. He acted on it. Ethiopia was helped.