LONDON (AlertNet) - Every food crisis is different - both its causes and how it develops.
But no famine arises completely out of the blue, and by the time images of dying children reach people's television screens in the West, vulnerable communities will often have experienced months of trying to cope with food shortages.
To understand the dynamics that turn a food crisis into a famine, click on Life-cycle of a famine for a stage-by-stage explanation based on Médecins Sans Frontières guidelines.
Prominent Western Sahara independence campaigner Aminatou Haidar speaks to the media while on a hunger strike at the Guacimeta airport, on Spain's Canary island of Lanzarote, November 17, 2009. Haidar, who ...
