Rachel Palmer from Save the Children reports for First News on what’s been happening in Somalia and why the situation could be getting worse soon.

What is happening in Somalia? 

Somalia, for many people, conjures up images of pirates, fighting and also of drought. This year Somalia’s people are facing a very bad drought again. For many people, especially farmers and animal herders, it is the fourth year in a row that the rains haven’t come. Farmers haven’t been able to grow any crops to feed their families. The animal herders, called pastoralists, haven’t been able to feed their cows, goats and camels meaning many of the animals have died.

What does it mean to be malnourished?

We are now seeing many severely malnourished children in Somalia because of the drought. In some parts of Somalia more than half the children are severely malnourished. A severely malnourished child is a child who has a body weight that is a third or more below what is normal for a child the same age and height.

What are families doing to survive?

Normally if a family can’t grow their own food they would buy it but food prices have risen so much they can’t afford to. In some places the price of the most basic food is five times more expensive than it was. The only option many families have is to leave their homes and travel to other places, either in Somalia or into Ethiopia and Kenya to find help. Tragically, not everyone survives the long journey. Some children are too weak and frail and die on the way.

Habiba and her family

Habiba, a mum of four young children, trekked for seven days from her home to escape drought and hunger. She fled to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, to find help but on the journey her youngest child died in her arms. When she arrived in Mogadishu she was exhausted but was determined to do everything she could to save the lives of her three remaining children. Save the Children was able to take her children to our health clinic to be treated for malnutrition.

Life in Mogadishu

In the last two months 100,000 people have fled to Mogadishu to escape the drought. People are building makeshift tents from sticks and cloth for their families to live in. One of the camps, Sigale camp, is where the old front line of the conflict in Mogadishu was. It’s now the home to 17,000 people and families are huddled among the ruins of bullet-ridden houses.

When the rains come

In the coming weeks the struggle for survival could get worse. The rains should arrive in the next couple of weeks and could bring relief to farmers who are planting this year’s crops but, for the families in the makeshift camps in Mogadishu, they could bring more misery. Already many of the children have diarrhoea and there are already some reports by the United Nations of cholera. These diseases spread in unsanitary conditions – where there is a lack of toilets and clean water – exactly how the people in the camps are living.

What can be done to help? 

Because of the fighting, Somalia is a very difficult place for aid organisations like Save the Children to work. Getting food and water and other essential supplies to the families is dangerous and difficult in many places. But it can be done. Save the Children is working in some of the most challenging places in Somalia and our amazing staff are literally saving children’s lives every day. By donating to our appeal you can help us save more children’s lives.