A parody account on Twitter – @LizJonesSomalia – has raised over £12,000 for the drought in just a matter of hours.

The parody account was set up after the Daily Mail sent its columnist Liz Jones to cover the famine in Somalia.

The satirical tweets included:

The temperature is 33°C in Somalia today. In Waitrose it’s always 15°C. *sigh*

and

Some of these refugees have mobile phones. How poor are they really? My mobile bill is over £100. How can they afford that?

The account quickly ratcheted up over 7,000 followers.

It was started by the @DMreporter account, which parodies the Daily Mail.

He wrote on his blog today:

I’ve always liked those zeitgeist Twitter accounts which pop up from time to time – @ChileanMiner @CatBinLady etc – which are wildly successful for a brief period and rightfully pass on.

They get a lot of attention very quickly, and often focus debate on a certain subject. Wouldn’t it be ace if that attention could be used for the power of good?

So, today, he started a fund-raising drive.

The page on JustGiving states:

£13,000 could vaccinate 13,000 children, feed 1200 people for a fortnight or buy 500 family hygiene kits to prevent the spread of disease.

All week we’ve all had a laugh, we’ve made fun of Liz Jones and criticised the hell out of her – now let’s make this experience about more than just a snarky Twitter feed and save some lives, and in the process stick it to a newspaper that thinks Twitter is just for telling people what you had for breakfast.

Donations have already topped an impressive £12K.

Donate from here. See the Twitter feed here.

Reader comments

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