When Dr Imtiaz Sooliman wants to make a point, he just gets to the point.
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Take this nugget of subtlety, for example: "White people - you are going to be a problem."
What followed were some nervous glances from the Caucasian contingent sitting in the Bamboos restaurant of the Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe, Malawi, an overnight stop on Tuesday.
Sooliman's frank assessment, without a hint of racist inflection, was a gentle heads-up made during a briefing of the organisation's second humanitarian visit to famine-stricken Somalia.
Expected to have arrived in the capital Mogadishu yesterday afternoon, it is the largest contingent of doctors and media ever assembled by the Durban NGO for a foreign mission.
A total of 53 volunteers have made the trip, among them 29 medical professionals.
Sooliman was expressing an aphorism: in Somalia, white skin equals American, and, as in most Muslim states around the world, that is seldom a recommended boast.
In 1993, 18 US soldiers were killed in a fierce gunfight in Mogadishu, immortalised later in the movie Black Hawk Down.
But Sooliman is an old hand at this and his organisation is hugely respected for its work.
He told the group that, on its earlier visit to Somalia, about three weeks ago, the gratitude of Somalis was overwhelming.
"They couldn't believe that we actually touched them [physically]."
The country is considered a failed state, having had no central government since civil war broke out in 1991.
The current famine, declared in July by the UN, is claiming about 2000 lives a day, said Sooliman.
On top of that, the country is literally on the move, creating a washing machine of intra-migration as people trek to food, medical care and safety.
The symptoms of this unfolding tragedy are conflating in Mogadishu, to where families are flocking in their thousands, driven from the rural hinterland by starvation and drought.
The stories have already become familiar: of families losing the young and infirm along the way, burying them where they died.
Poor rainfall was the trigger for the current famine but in reality the tragedy was precipitated by years of strife.
Last month, Unicef and the World Health Organisation said 470000 displaced people were living in makeshift settlements in Mogadishu alone.
Coupled with acute malnutrition - one in four children is estimated to be severely malnourished - and the mortality rate shows no signs of dipping.
Again, Sooliman was blunt with his message in preparation for the mental and emotional demands.
"I know it is callous to say, but an earthquake is better. In 30 seconds, 300000 people might be dead and it's all over.
"But in Somalia, over 16 weeks, parents watch their children die in front of their eyes. It's a slow death."
When Sooliman speaks, it is with conviction and passion.
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