Mogadishu -
In an unmistakable scene, women - most of them elderly - are queuing in new camps established on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, to accommodate displaced people displaced by the current drought in the regions of southern and western Somalia.
Hundreds of displaced people who flocked in recent days are waiting here to obtain any food assistance to satisfy their hunger, while the effects of fatigue and destitution are visible on them, young and old.
The displaced live in small huts that do not protect them from the heat and the cold, after they fled from the drought that destroyed all their livestock and farms, and chose to escape themselves by fleeing to Mogadishu to seek food aid, but the specter of hunger still haunts them, as no aid has reached them. Considered neither by the government nor by the humanitarian organizations concerned.
Displaced people who fled the drought face difficult conditions in a camp in the south of the capital, Mogadishu (Al-Jazeera)
escaping from drought
In the Gersbali area of the southern suburbs of the capital Mogadishu, Abdi Gari Osman arrived with members of his family about a month ago, fleeing from the village of Dimai in the Lower Shabelle Governorate in southern Somalia, after their livestock died and their farm was damaged due to the lack of rain for several consecutive seasons.
After losing all their livelihoods, they were forced to flee to Mogadishu for fear of their lives, but in very difficult circumstances, as they walked long distances to get a car to take them, and since they were unable to pay the cost of travel, the help of some families enabled 5 family members to reach to the capital, while leaving behind a similar number facing an unknown fate.
Othman tells Al Jazeera Net that they are now living with irregular aid from humanitarian organizations, and they get some food collected by citizens of Mogadishu.
The displaced woman, Hawai Hassan, describes the miserable conditions of the new displaced, and she told Al Jazeera Net that they are suffering harsh conditions, as they live in modest huts and do not find food, and that water is the only thing available in their camp, and "health services are non-existent, there are no toilets here."
Hassan says, "It is difficult to obtain a living even once a day for many," and that the fear of dying of starvation and thirst is what forced them to flee their areas, so that they might find help in the outskirts of the capital. .
7 million are threatened with starvation
The influx of displaced people continues to the Mogadishu camps, at a rate of 30 to 50 families per day, and the Somali official, Nathifa Hussein - who manages the camps for the displaced - says that about 2,025 displaced people fled from areas in western and southern Somalia as a result of drought, and arrived in camps in the Ghersabali area of Mogadishu within a month.
Hussein points out that all they can do as government agencies is to provide a space for the displaced to live and huts to shelter them, in addition to providing them with water, nothing more.
According to a report by the Somali Prime Minister's Office on June 25, the drought affected 7 million Somalis, which constitutes more than 42% of the country's population of 15 million, and displaced 684,000 villagers from their areas, as well as affecting more than 9 Millions of livestock, equivalent to 17% of the country's livestock, while about 900,000 head of livestock died.
Another report of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs indicates that 1.5 million Somali children suffer from malnutrition due to drought conditions, of whom 356,000 will face the risk of death due to acute malnutrition before the end of next September, and that about half of the Somali people (7.7 million people) ) Need food assistance, most of whom have been affected by drought.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia, Adam Abdel Mawla, said that 8 out of the 90 districts that make up Somalia are suffering from famine-like conditions.
Abdul Mawla's statements came during his recent visit to a camp in Dolo, western Somalia, and added that "the compound must face such a wave of drought that Somalia has not witnessed for 40 years, and that the situation without a quick response will deteriorate into famine, which the United Nations warns of." .
Queues of people displaced due to drought wait for someone to give them a living near the Somali capital Mogadishu (Al Jazeera)
300,000 in real starvation
Climate change is a major reason for the lack of rain for 4 consecutive seasons in many Somali regions and its scarcity in other regions, which has caused villagers to lose their livelihoods from livestock and dry up their farms, according to Deputy Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Shakour, the Somali president’s commissioner to confront the drought crisis.
The authorized official says to Al Jazeera Net that the security conditions, political tensions and the weak economic capabilities of the government have compounded the drought and its effects.
According to Abdul Shakour, the food crisis resulting from Russia's war on Ukraine has exacerbated the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Somalia, while the international response to reduce the repercussions of the drought is still very modest, as food aid has so far reached only 2.8 million affected out of 7 million Somalis who need assistance. 5 million of them need urgent help.
He pointed out that the United Nations requested $1.5 billion to address the drought and its repercussions in Somalia, of which only about $400 million was collected, adding that "the Ukraine crisis distracted donors' attention from the drought crisis and its repercussions in Somalia."
In light of this, the Somali government is now seeking to draw the attention of the world and local donors to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country in order to contain it before it develops into a general famine, although the authorized official confirmed that 300,000 Somalis are currently in a state of famine.
This deterioration comes as the warnings issued by the United Nations and its organizations escalate of an imminent famine in Somalia, such as those that swept the southern regions of it in 2011 and claimed the lives of 250,000 Somalis, half of them children.