https://english.almayadeen.net/news/health/hundreds-die-as-somalia-faces-famine

Hundreds die as Somalia faces famine

A drought in the Horn of Africa has taken away four of Owliyo Hassan Salaad's children this year.

Now she cradles Ali Osman, her weak and squalling 3-year-old, whom she carried on a 90-kilometer walk from her hamlet to Somalia's capital, frantic not to lose him as well.

She can scarcely speak about the young bodies buried back home in the dirt too dry for planting as she sits on the floor of a malnutrition treatment clinic full of worried mothers.

The death toll is rapidly increasing amid the region's worst drought in four decades. According to previously unreported data supplied to the Associated Press, at least 448 people have died this year in malnutrition treatment centers in Somalia alone.

Authorities in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya are now focusing on the difficult challenge of preventing starvation.

'Silent death'

Many more individuals are dying without the knowledge of authorities, such as Salaad's four children, all of whom are under the age of ten. Some are killed in isolated pastoral settlements. Some people perish while undertaking rescue missions. Some die even after reaching displacement centers because they are hungry beyond help.

“Definitely thousands” have died, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula, told reporters on Tuesday, though the data to support that is yet to come.

Salaad had four more children with her husband. They were too weak to travel to Mogadishu, she explained.

Drought comes and goes in the Horn of Africa, but this time it's like no other. Humanitarian assistance has been sapped by global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and now the war in Ukraine. Prices for staples like wheat and cooking oil are rising quickly, in some places by more than 100%.

Part 1