Tens of thousands of Africans died 'as governments delayed' Tens of thousands of Africans died while donor governments needlessly withheld aid by adopting a wait-and-see approach to a famine that eventually cost 100,000 lives, a report has found. Two-year-old Aden Salaad looks up toward his mother as she bathes him in a tub at a Doctors Without Borders hospital, where Aden is receiving treatment for malnutrition, in Dagahaley Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya Photo: AP/Rebecca Blackwell Oxfam and Save the Children, two of Britain's leading aid agencies, accused donor governments of delaying action for nearly a year as a severe drought turning into a deadly famine between the summers of 2010 and 2011. International monitoring agencies early warning systems started showing the crisis was reaching dangerous levels in August 2010. While some governments were providing emergency relief with months, a full scale effort was not launched until July 201l. The report, titled A Dangerous Delay, said that malnutrition had crossed the danger threshold in early 2011, meaning lives were needlessly lost for at least six months. "We all bear responsibility for this dangerous delay that cost lives in East Africa and need to learn the lessons of the late response," said Oxfam's Chief Executive Barbara Stocking. "It's shocking that the poorest people are still bearing the brunt of a failure to respond swiftly and decisively. We know that acting early saves lives but collective risk aversion meant aid agencies were reluctant to spend money until they were certain there was a