Somalia, drought: the number of malnourished children has grown 5 times in ten months in the south of the country, ditches are being dug in a killing heat

ROME – Preliminary data from a survey of 90,000 children in the city of Baidoa by community health workers suggests that rates of acute malnutrition are on par with 2011. More than 600,000 people displaced by the climate crisis have camped in 500 fields around the city desperate for water and food, after their wells have dried up, crops have failed and livestock have died. Many arrived too late to receive life-saving treatment for their sick children. Save The Children – which has been operating in Somalia and Somaliland since 1951 with programs to support the health, education and food needs of children – last year directly reached over 3 million people, including 1.7 million children.

Hundreds of children in the Baidoa cemetery. In a single cemetery in Baidoa, a southern city in Somalia, the bodies of 230 children killed by malnutrition have already been buried, which is rising to levels never seen since the last famine declared in the country 11 years ago. Exhausted families – many of whom have walked for days from drought-stricken villages to seek help in the city – are burying their children there every day. Each small grave is marked by rocks and thorny bushes where families cry and pray. In the Somali city, the number of children treated for the worst form of malnutrition increased more than fivefold between January and October, according to data compiled by humanitarian organizations, including Save the Children. About 260,000 people died during the 2011-12 famine, half of them before it was even declared. About 50% of the victims were children under the age of five.

Ditches are dug in the fifth rainless season. Although there has not yet been an official declaration of famine, those digging the graves to bury the victims are working in the scorching sun with temperatures of 35 degrees, although this should be the rainy season as less than 60% of the expected rain, an alarm signal that heralds the fifth consecutive missed season. In the city there are those who say they buried 17 children, including younger brothers and sisters, buried side by side. One of the girls buried here is seven-year-old Mana Madey. “She wasn’t sick. It was her hunger. She fell silent, I stayed there with her and she died”, said her mother, Sirad, sitting next to the empty bed of the little girl, in the tent of the family of she. The woman and her husband had cattle and goats until drought hit their animals. Their seven remaining children are kept alive thanks to food and water from neighbors who share with them what little they have. “We are facing problems that no one in the world should face,” Sirad said.

Fleeing from hunger, which however pursues them. “We fled from hunger, but hunger has followed us here. I tried to find help, but it was too late for Ahmed. He took the last two breaths and that was it. She didn’t even cry,” said Mahupo Ali, a mother of three. She was pregnant when she arrived in a nearby field and delivered her baby there but could not produce enough milk to feed him. She did not attend the burial. She did not she did it. Other women lost their children during strenuous treks on foot lasting several days, while their husbands went in different directions looking for work. It is estimated that drought in Somalia this year has displaced up to 1 .1 million people, mainly women, children and the elderly.

Those 30 goats that were needed to survive. “Inside I feel like I’m burning, but outside I have to stay calm for my other children,” said Safiyo Nur, 28, who left her home in nearby Bakool region after all 30 goats died. who had his family. She had left with six children but she arrived in Baidoa with five. Her daughter, Ajapo, 5, died in her arms under a tree on the first day of walking. She had no choice but to bury it by the side of the road and continue the journey. Thousands of women are flocking to the makeshift camps in Baidoa, where they erect stick structures and cover them in brightly colored clothing and fabrics to protect their families from the elements. Some have fought their way through the fighting as government forces try to push back Al-Shabaab, an armed group that controls large swathes of the countryside.

“I only had one hen left.” “We left due to lack of water and food. I was one of the last to leave my village,” said Asli, 40, who used to live 120km north of Baidoa until she lost her livestock last month and was left alone with chickens. had to take a detour en route because of fighting near Somalia’s border with Ethiopia then her two-year-old son, Mohammed contracted measles and died.Although her eight other children are receiving medical treatment, she fears for the their life.

The stabilization center of Save the Children. It is located in Baidoa and is a real opportunity for salvation for the most severely malnourished children who access it. Over 90% of hospitalized children recover enough to be discharged within a couple of weeks. Many are given IV drips to hydrate them and given vitamin-enriched milk and a protein-rich peanut paste. Some are treated for pneumonia with simple antibiotics. “And the relief on the mothers’ faces is evident,” says Dr. Mohamed Orman Wehliye, one of the aid workers, with satisfaction. “We lost seven children last month. It’s not normal. It’s a real tragedy. I’m busy 24 hours a day for my people and my city”, says the doctor, while together with 12 nurses he was taking care of as many as 70 children under five.

People die even if the “technical threshold” of famine is not exceeded. Meanwhile, the humanitarian affairs minister of the southwestern state of Somalia, Abdinasir Abdi Arush, said he hoped no famine would be declared. “I think we have an opportunity to avoid it,” he said, but Claire Sanford, deputy humanitarian director of Save the Children UK, points out that children are starving whether or not the official technical famine threshold has not been reached. “Our centers are overrun with mothers doing everything they can to prevent their children from becoming another mound in a cemetery. More money is desperately needed to help save them,” Sandford said.

The latest data from the United Nations. They contain information that half of Somalia’s 15 million people are facing dire food shortages, and more than 300,000 people are expected to face starvation by December this year. This, in practice, means not being able to eat something even once a day and for several days. The number of people affected by the severe drought rose – again according to the UN – to 7.8 million in August this year, compared to 3.2 million last December.