In an interview Wednesday on CNN’s AC 360, U2 frontman and activist Bono dismissed any suggestion that the famine threatening the lives of up to 600,000 African children was the result of an act of God. “You can blame droughts on God, but famines are man-made,” the singer told Anderson Cooper, who was in Mogadishu, and has been reporting from the region all week. “This shouldn’t be happening,” Bono, who is co-founder of the ONE campaign, said, noting that other countries in the region have been hit by the same drought, but effective use of agricultural programs have helped avoid famine.

The situation in Somalia has been staggering–and led Cooper to argue the lives of hundreds of thousands of kids should be getting more of the world’s attention.