“I cried so much, I passed out,” she said, “but we have so many problems. We don’t have food or shelter.” Sitting in a plastic chair at a clinic run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Mogadishu, Hassan’s face is blank with exhaustion as a doctor examines the tiny girl curled in his arms. Muslim’s daughter is 18 months old but weighs just over 10kg. The papery skin is stretched over her protruding ribs. He doesn’t cry. The doctor measures her tiny forearm. The tape shows red, indicating severe malnutrition. This clinic has seen an 80% increase in the number of cases in the last month alone and a staggering 265% increase in severe malnutrition in children under the age of 5, says IRC senior nutrition director Mukhtar Mahdi. “We’ve never seen these levels in our clinic before. It breaks my heart. That’s why I’m still working in the field, to prevent a disaster.” Somalia has been here before. In 2011, a famine claimed more than 250,000 lives. In 2017, another famine was narrowly averted thanks to an influx of aid from the international community and the Somali government vowing never to repeat it. But this year the country faces the perfect storm. Four consecutive failed rainy seasons and the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has plunged this nation into crisis. Then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and blockade of Ukraine’s wheat exports disrupted the global supply chain. Sanctions against Russia have sent fuel and food prices soaring, threatening to push Somalia to the brink. Mohamed Mohamed Hassan, director of Save the Children, says the situation is worse than he has seen before.
“Of the wheat consumed in Somalia, 92% of it comes from Russia and Ukraine,” he said. “The price of wheat has doubled in some areas.” “The war in Ukraine has really made this situation worse.” Further compounding the issue is the fact that global attention has been consumed by the conflict in Ukraine. According to the UN, less than a third of the $1.46 billion needed for Somalia has been secured. “What’s happening in Ukraine is understandably taking up a lot of oxygen,” explained Lara Fossey, deputy director of the World Food Programme. “So bringing attention back to what’s going on here has been really difficult.” According to the UN, about 7 million people, almost half of Somalia’s population, do not have enough food. An estimated 1.5 million children under the age of 5 are severely malnourished and about 448 have died this year. Aid workers warn the true number is likely much higher, as the deaths of many children here, like Hassan’s, go unrecorded. On the outskirts of the capital, a fierce wind whips through the makeshift tents at the newly established Al Na’im camp. It is one of many informal settlements that spring up and then receive limited support from the neighboring community, the government and aid groups. The camp’s administrator, Zamzam Mohammed, says its population has mushroomed in the past month and is now home to 876 families. That’s a tiny fraction of the roughly 800,000 people displaced this year by drought and famine, according to the UN. The last week of June saw 36,000 new arrivals in camps across Somalia, according to UNICEF. The agency and its local partner are working to improve sanitation and distribute aid in Naim and other camps on the outskirts of Mogadishu, but say they are struggling to keep up. UNICEF’s Victor Chinyama says local communities around Mogadishu, known for supporting the new arrivals, are now struggling themselves. “Host communities cannot support new arrivals as they used to, as they would like to,” he said. Camp director Mohamed walks to the edge of the camp where she says she has overseen the burials of 30 children. Piles of freshly dug earth, simply marked with aloe leaves and acacia branches are dotted in a line. “From that corner to this one, this row of graves is all children… You feel so much pain, sadness when you bury a baby. You can’t do anything to help. I’m a mom and I can feel their pain as a parent” , Mohammed said. She takes her headscarf to dab away the tears that flow from her eyes. About 500 meters away, Nourta Ali Humey sits outside her tent. Three of her children are among those buried here. All suffered from malnutrition and died after contracting measles in the camp. He has not yet visited their graves. “I can’t bear to go,” he told CNN. “The sadness I would feel…” She drifts off and turns her attention to her young daughter sitting by her side. “She was very ill. I will visit them when she is better.”