Happy Nice Mall

DOOLOW, Somalia — When his crops ran out and his withered goats died, Hirsiyo Mohamed left his home in southwestern Somalia, carrying and coaxing three of his eight children on a long walk through bare, dusty terrain in temperatures of up to 100 degrees Celsius.

On the way, his 3-and-a-half-year-old son Adan tugged at his robe, begging for food and water. “But there is no one to give,” he said. “We buried it and kept walking.”

She said they reached an aid camp in the town of Doolow four days later, but her malnourished 8-year-old daughter, Habiba, soon caught whooping cough and died. Last month, holding her 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter Meryem in her arms in her makeshift tent, she said, “This drought has finished us off.”

Worst drought in forty years dangerous lives Across the Horn of Africa, close to 20 million people live in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. at risk of starvation By the end of this year, according to the World Food Programme.

The threat of hunger across Africa is so dire that last week the African Union president, President of Senegal Macky Sall, said: appealed To Russian President Vladimir V. Putin to lift the blockade on Ukraine’s grain and fertilizer exports – even American diplomats Warned of Russia’s efforts to sell stolen Ukrainian wheat to African nations.

this most devastating crisis originates in Somalia, where about seven million of the estimated 16 million people in the country face acute food shortages. At least 448 children have died from severe acute malnutrition since January, according to a database managed by UNICEF.

Aid donors focused on crisis in Ukraine and coronavirus pandemic pledge only about 18 percent “This will put the world in a moral and ethical dilemma,” said Al-Khidir Daloum, Somali country director of the World Food Program, the UN agency of the $1.46 billion needed for Somalia, according to the United Nations’ financial monitoring service.

Rivers have dwindled, wells have dried up and their animals have died, families walking or riding buses and donkeys—sometimes for hundreds of kilometers—only in search of food, water, or emergency medical care.

Parents flock to the capital, Mogadishu, bringing their malnourished children to healthcare facilities such as Benadir Hospital, one of the few in the country to have a pediatric stabilization unit. On a recent visit, the beds were filled with bony babies with scaly skin and hair that had lost their natural color due to malnutrition. Many of the children also contracted diseases such as measles and needed oxygen to breathe because they were fed through nasal tubes.

Mothers sat in the aisles, slowly feeding their children the peanut-based paste used to fight malnutrition. The price of this life-saving product expected to increase Up to 16 percent due to the war in Ukraine and the pandemic, which has made materials, packaging and supply chains more costly, according to UNICEF.

In the hospital’s cholera treatment unit, Adan Diyad held the hand of his 4-year-old son, Zakariya, as the boy’s protruding ribs swelled. Mr. Diyad had abandoned the corn and bean fields in the southwest area of ​​the Bay after the river dwindled.

He settled in Mogadishu with his wife and three children in a crowded camp for displaced people without toilets and adequate clean water. Unemployed, he could not feed his family. Zakariya, who was usually chirpy, was emaciated. Mr. Diyad said that the night before they transported him to the hospital, he continued to listen to his son’s heartbeat to make sure he didn’t die.

“He couldn’t even open his eyes when I brought him here,” said Mr Diyad.

Diyad Bey and his family are among 560,000 people displaced by drought this year. Some three million Somalis are also displaced by tribal and political conflicts. The ever-growing threat from the terrorist organization Al Shabab.

In rural areas in southern and central Somalia, danger and poor road networks have made it difficult for authorities or aid agencies to reach those in need. The United Nations estimates that around 900,000 Somalis live in inaccessible areas controlled by al-Shabaab – but aid workers believe these numbers are higher.

Mohammed Ali Hussein, deputy governor of the southern Gedo region, acknowledged that local authorities were unable to leave the areas they controlled to rescue those in need, even when they received a distress call.

Extreme weather events, some of which have been linked to climate change, have also decimated communities and caused flash flooding. cyclonesrising temperatures, a locust infestation This has ruined the crops and now four consecutive unsuccessful rainy seasons.

“These crises keep coming back and forth,” so people haven’t had a chance to rebuild their farms or herds, said Daniel Molla, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s chief technical adviser for food and nutrition for Somalia.

Those displaced by the drought are coming to towns and cities, where many are already struggling to find food.

Somalia imports more than half of its food and the poor in Somalia are already to spend 60-80 percent of their income goes to food. Wheat loss from Ukraine, supply chain delays and rising inflation, sharp increases in prices edible oil and staple foods such as rice and sorghum.

At a market in the border town of Doolow, more than two dozen tables were abandoned as vendors could no longer afford to stock up on produce from local farms. The remaining retailers sold very few cherry tomatoes, dried lemons, and unripe bananas to the few customers who walked in.

Some of the shoppers were displaced by food vouchers from aid groups worried about rising food prices.

Traders like Adan Mohamed, who runs a juice and snack shop, say they had to raise their prices after sugar, flour and fruit prices soared. “Everything is expensive,” said Mr Mohamed, who blends pineapples imported from Kenya. Many Somalis cut back on meat and camel milk, with wages relatively unchanged, he said. Has more than three million herd animals perish Since mid-2021, according to monitoring agencies.

The drought is also straining the social support systems that Somalis depend on during crises.

As thousands of hungry and homeless people flocked to the capital, the women of the Hiil-Haween Cooperative sought ways to support them. But faced with their own soaring bills, most women said they had little to share. They collected clothing and food for around 70 displaced people.

“We had to reach deep within our community to find something,” said Hadiya Hassan, who runs the cooperative.

Experts say that the next October-December rainy season is the most probably failpushing the drought to 2023. Forecasts are alarming for analysts, who say worsening conditions and lagged increases in funding may reflect the severe drought of 2011. killed about 260,000 Somalis.

“2011 has terrible repercussions,” said Daniel Maxwell, professor of food safety at Tufts University and co-author of the book.Famine in Somalia”

For now, the brutal drought is forcing some families to make tough choices.

When Amina Abdullahi returned to the Benadir hospital in Mogadishu, she cared for her severely malnourished 3-month-old daughter, Fatuma Yusuf. Clenching her fists and panting, the baby let out a feeble screech with smiles from the doctors, who were happy to hear him make a sound.

“When we brought him here, he was as still as dead,” Abdullahi said. But even though the baby had gained more than a pound at the hospital, it weighed less than five pounds overall—not even half of what it should have been. Doctors said it would be some time before he was discharged.

This situation made Abdullahi very sad. On a small, withered farm in Beledweyne, about 200 miles away, his goats were dying, leaving six other children behind.

The pain at home is indescribable,” he said. “I want to go back to my children.”