Tnbsp;That's the view of the Irish aid agency GOAL whose chief executive John O’Shea said: “The Irish nation has participated over a long number of years in UN peacekeeping operations and this entitles us to answers to some key questions from the UN’s Security Council.”

Mr O'Shea has questioned why the Security Council has not met to discuss “the plight of the four million famine-stricken people in Somalia whose lives are currently hanging by a thread?”

He continued: “Besides making a few general statements at the outset of the Horn of Africa emergency, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has not publicly commented on the stricken millions in Somalia.

“Why not? It is by far the most serious aspect of the famine.

“Why is there reluctance on the part of the United Nations Security Council to sanction peacekeepers, who would be tasked with ensuring a safer environment so that thousands of lifesaving tonnes of food and medical aid might be delivered directly to the starving people of Somalia?

Mr O’Shea added: “Why are the true intentions of the international community towards the famine in Somalia so difficult to ascertain?

“It seems abundantly clear that the international community has no stomach to tackle the terrorists who wield control over the lives of millions of starving people.

“If this continues to be the case, the world will witness another tragedy on the scale of the Rwandan genocide.

“The media emphasis may be on the refugees – the lucky ones who have managed to reach the borders with Kenya, Ethiopia or Djibouti – but the real tragedy is being enacted on a minute-by-minute basis inside Somalia.

“It is imperative that Enda Kenny, on behalf of the Irish nation, demands that the Security Council honours its obligation at this moment to those millions of people whose lives are in deadly peril. Mr Kenny must seek an immediate meeting with Ban Ki-moon and impress upon him that the Irish nation want to see meaningful action taken to feed the Somali people.

“He must also demand to know what strategy, if any, the Security Council has for ensuring that four million people won’t perish from starvation. And if they have a strategy – why has it been kept from the general public and from the Somali people.”