https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... rk-despair
n a rock-hard dust bowl of barren land outside the Somali town of Caynabo, more than a thousand people have pitched up makeshift shelters as they figure out how to survive. Searing drought has all but destroyed their pastoral lifestyle and now it threatens to kill them.
They are among 6 million people here in Somalia in need of urgent food assistance to prevent a repeat of the 2011 famine that claimed a quarter of a million lives.
Amina Dahir, a mother in her 30s, travelled for two days and two nights to get to Caynabo after the last remnants of the family’s livestock perished. She was accompanied by her six children and other relatives.
Famine warning signs were clear – so why are 20 million lives now at risk?
“People are coming every day like us, carrying what little belongings they have. But there is nothing here for us – nothing to eat, nowhere to go,” she says, holding up the empty bowl from which the family consumed their last remaining food this morning – a few portions of plain rice – along with their final water reserves.
Dahir is among the many people here who say little or no aid has arrived. As acute malnourishment and disease take hold among the group’s children, she asks a simple question. “Where is the help from our own government or the international community?”
