On Friday, Somali authorities pleaded with U.S. officials to ease restrictions on wire transfers to the region after Sunrise Community Banks of Minnesota announced plans to halt the service. Due to the large number of Somalians living in that state, Sunrise handles many of these transactions. The U.S. views wire transfers to the Horn of Africa as risky because of terrorism concerns, yet thousands in famine-ravaged Somalia are dependent of them.

In September, musician and poet K'Naan wrote an op-ed about returning to his native Somalia for The New York Times. He had left the country, which is in the grip of a devastating famine and violent civil war, twenty years earlier, fleeing with other members of his family for safety in Canada. He came on the show to discuss this in September.

Sometimes, it is a reporter's personal connection to a place or a person that makes the story a reality to those reading it, though they may be far disconnected from the events on the ground. That is certainly the sense one gets from reading Jeffrey Gettleman's latest piece on the devastating famine that has ravaged the Horn of Africa. In today's paper, The New York Times East Africa bureau chief writes about his struggle to reconcile covering one of the worst humanitarian disasters of all time as a reporter with his desire to help the masses he's watched suffer.

Over the weekend, two suicide bombers carried out an attack on African Union troops in Mogadishu, Somalia. Ten people were killed. The man allegedly responsible? A 22-year-old Somali-American man named Abdisalan Hussein Ali. He's not the first Somali-American to leave the U.S. and return back to Somalia to join a terrorist group called al Shabab. Zuhur Ahmed hosts a radio program that serves the community that Ali came from. Her show is called Somali Community Link and it broadcasts on Takeaway affiliate station KFAI in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has been discussing the case on her program.

The United Nations Security Council is urging all member nations to make piracy a crime. There have been a record 352 pirate attacks in 2011 alone, up 22 percent from last year. Pirates from Somalia, a hotbed of piracy, have been responsible for 199 attacks, 58 percent more than in 2010. Jon Manel of the BBC reports on the story of the personal impact of pirate attacks. South Africans Bruno Pelizzari and Debbie Calitz were captured a year ago as their boat travelled between Madagascar and Mozambique. They are still being held, and their family members are attempting to pay their ransom.

Four million people are starving in Somalia, as the Horn of Africa continues to be ravaged by a combination of low rainfall, political instability, and high food prices. Roughly 750,000 of them are expected to perish if they do not get help soon. All together, there are  13 million people suffering from hunger in the Horn of Africa. The UN says it needs an additional $700 million to get food to them. This news comes as lawmakers in the U.S. are discussing slashing foreign aid from the State Department's budget.

Musician and poet K'Naan recently returned to his native Somalia, which is in the grip of a devastating famine and violent civil war. His last memories of the country were twenty years ago, when he fled with other members of his family for safety in Canada.

East Africa's worst drought in 60 years is only getting worse. The United Nations declared famine earlier this week in a new part of southern Somalia, and warned that as many as 750,000 people could die as the drought goes on. Twelve million people across the region are in need of food aid. The BBC's Will Ross just returned from a trip to the Somali border and Dadaab Somali refugee camp in northern Kenya. He reports from Nairobi.

The crisis in Somalia continues, with drought and famine plaguing the country and millions of refugees fighting for survival. The U.S. has approved $565 million in humanitarian aid so far this year. But our involvement in Somalia is does not stop there. According to an article in The New York Times yesterday, the U.S. has quietly been stepping up clandestine operations inside Somalia, training Somali intelligence operatives, interrogating suspects, and sending $45 million in arms to African soldiers and private security companies, to fight against the Shabaab, an al-Qaida aligned militant group.

In Somalia, there are renewed hopes that victims of the country's famine may at last receive much needed aid. Over the weekend African peacekeepers forced Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist rebels out of the capital, Mogadishu. The rebels have blocked several international relief groups from bringing food to Somalia. Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times' East Africa bureau chief, reports on the latest from Nairobi.

One of the biggest obstacles to providing aid to those affected by the drought and famine crisis in Somalia has been the militant group al-Shabab, which controls large parts of southern Somalia. The al-Qaida-linked group is refusing to allow many Western aid organizations into the country, and at the same time is blocking people who attempt to flee. As a result, the lives of 500,000 children are at risk as they suffer from malnutrition. Al-Shabab is viewed as a dangerous and extremist force in Somalia today, but that was not always the case.

The five countries of the Horn of Africa are experiencing the worst declared drought in 60 years. What was a serious problem with the weather has become a humanitarian crisis in Somalia where over 60 percent of the country is controlled by militias who have been hampering the access of aid groups. 

John Hockenberry went to Somalia in 1992. Hunger, armed Islamists, and drought were taking a heavy toll on the country — just like they are now. In his latest video, Hockenberry talks about the experience, and how news of famine and difficult challenges to delivery of aid in recent weeks sounds far too familiar in a country still desperate for help, and plagued by those who undermine it. 

The Horn of Africa's worst drought in more than 60 years continues to wreak havoc as millions of people are affected by the resulting famine. Somalia has been the worst hit so far but delivering aid to the region has proved difficult since large parts of southern Somalia are controlled by the Islamic militant group al-Shabaab. Kenya, Eritrea and Ethiopia are also struggling with the humanitarian crisis. 

Millions of Somalis are mired in a deep humanitarian crisis that is now driving thousands of refugees over the border to Kenya daily. Famine is devastating the country, and the process of seeking outside aid is complicated by by an ineffective government, interference by the al-Qaida linked group al-Shabaab, and internal strife. Regardless, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for international aid agencies to bring food and supplies.

The United Nations has declared parts of southern Somalia to be in a state of famine, as the country struggles to cope with a drought that has affected more than 10 million people in the Horn of Africa. But international aid efforts may be complicated because of the Islamic terrorist organization Al-Shabaab, which controls sections of southern Somalia and has in the past restricted access to the region.

The drought in the Horn of Africa has sent tens of thousands of Somalians to refugee camps in search of necessary resources. In Minneapolis, a large community of Somali-Americans are doing their best to send aid overseas. But their efforts are fraught with difficulty because of the dangerous climate in Somalia, where Islamist militants aligned with al-Qaida have control.

Twelve million people need food aid after rains failed for the second consecutive year across the Horn of Africa region, which encompasses Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. Somalia has already been battling famine for two decades. The World Food Program says that more than 110,000 people are in camps in Southeastern Ethiopia, with more than 1,600 are arriving every day, showing signs of severe malnutrition.

The arrest of 19-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, in connection with a failed plot to detonate a car bomb in Portland, Oregon, has brought attention to the nation’s growing Somali community. Even before Mohamud's arrest, young Somalis have often become the focus of negative media attention — often linked to gang violence, stories of radicalization and drug or sex trafficking.

Six more people are dead in the third straight day of fighting in Somalia's capital Mogadishu. At least 80 people have been killed since Monday. The fighting follows an attack by al-Shabab militants on a hotel in Mogadishu yesterday which killed several Somali lawmakers and other guests.