More than half a million children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years suffer from acute malnutrition due to drought

Hunger threatens the children of Somalia

The decline of rains for four consecutive seasons in Somalia plunged the country into famine. Archive

In a hospital bed in Mogadishu, baby Sadiq Ibrahim lies with a lost look in his eyes.

The flies land on his face, but he can scarcely drive them away with a weak arm.

The boy is so emaciated that he finds it hard to even cry.

He lost his strength due to lack of food, and his crying became like a moan.

"He's my only child, he's very sick," says his mother, Fadumo Daoud, as she looks at her son's emaciated legs.

To save him, she made a three-day trip from Baidoa region in southwestern Somalia, the Horn of Africa country worst hit by an unprecedented drought that is sowing hunger.

At De Martino Hospital in Mogadishu, Fadumo Daoud watches over her son day and night, praying that he won't join the list of hundreds of children who have died from malnutrition in recent months.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports that 730 children died in feeding centers between January and July this year.

More than half a million children between the ages of six months and five years suffer from acute malnutrition.

After the rains receded for four consecutive seasons since the end of 2020, and with a similar fifth season expected from October, Somalia has plunged into famine.

7.8 million people across the country, or nearly half of Somalia's population, suffer from drought, including 213,000 at risk of severe famine, according to the United Nations.

famine declaration

The Director of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, warned that a state of famine would be declared in the southern regions of Baidoa and Berkakaba between October and December if no urgent action was taken.

He said the situation was worse than the previous famine in 2011 that killed 260,000 people, more than half of them children under the age of five.

displacement

In the face of the danger posed by the extremist youth movement 15 years ago, a million Somalis left their towns for major cities, especially the capital Mogadishu, where they live in informal camps.

Nonai Aden Doro, who has 10 children, traveled 300 kilometers from Baidoa to seek medical help for her three-year-old son, Hassan Mohamed, whose organs became swollen due to severe malnutrition.

"In the last three years, we have not harvested any crops because of the lack of rain," she says.

And the 35-year-old mother adds: "We faced a terrible situation (...) to get a jerrycan of water, and we had to walk for two hours."

She holds her son, trying to comfort him, while waiting for medical care from the NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC) in a Mogadishu suburb.

In the seven health and nutrition centers run by the NGO, on the outskirts of the Somali capital, “the number of new arrivals has increased dramatically since June,” says Faiza Ali, a nutrition officer at IRC.

Among them, the number of malnourished children tripled, going from a maximum of 13 per day in May to 40 in September.

5.8 kilograms at the age of two

The drought also hit usually fertile areas, such as Lower Shabelle bordering Mogadishu.

This area was previously a haven for people suffering from drought, but today it is desolate.

“We used to grow vegetables to feed our children before drought hit us,” says the widow, Fadumo Ibrahim Hassan, who has six children a week after arriving in the capital.

And now we live on what the Lord bestows upon us.”

This 35-year-old woman took her two-year-old daughter, Yosero, to Hospital de Martino, on the advice of doctors at IRC who considered her condition extremely serious.

The girl weighs just 5.8 kilograms, which is half the weight of a healthy child of her age.

These cases are more than what the doctor says, Fahmo Ali.

“The cases we receive here are the worst, with complications,” she says.

Sometimes people we treat come back to the hospital after they get sick again.”

 The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports that 730 children died in feeding centers between January and July this year.

7.8 million people across the country, or nearly half of Somalia's population, are suffering from drought, including 213,000 at high risk of starvation, according to the United Nations.

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