“The 2011 Somali famine killed an estimated 260,000 people, half of them age five and under, according to a new report to be published this week that more than doubles previous death toll estimates, officials told the Associated Press,” the news service reports. “A Western official briefed on the new report — the most authoritative to date — told AP that it says 260,000 people died, and that half the victims were five and under,” the news service writes. “Two other international officials briefed on the report confirmed that the toll was in the quarter-million range,” the AP notes, adding, “All three insisted they not be identified because they were not authorized to share the report’s contents before it is officially released.” According to the AP, “[t]he report is being made public Thursday by FEWSNET, a famine early warning system funded by the U.S. government’s aid arm USAID, and by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit — Somalia, which is funded by the U.S. and Britain” (Straziuso, 4/29).