No mother should lose a child. Owliyo Hassan Salaad has seen four die this year. The drought in horn of africa He has taken them, one by one.
Now, she rocks her frail 3-year-old son, Ali Osmanwhom he carried for the 90 kilometers (55 miles) that separate his village from the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, which she traveled on foot, desperate not to lose him too. Sitting on the floor of a malnutrition treatment center packed with anxious mothers, she can barely speak of the little bodies buried behind her house, on land too dry to farm.
Deaths have begun to rise amid the region’s most intense drought in four decades. Unpublished data shared with Associated Press show that at least 448 people died this year in malnutrition treatment centers in just Somalia. The authorities of Somalia, Ethiopia Y Kenya now become the grim task of trying to prevent famine.
But far from the focus of the authorities, many more people die, like the four children of salaadAll under 10 years old. Some lose their lives in their remote farming communities. Others as they walk for help. Some even after arriving in camps for the displaced, when their malnutrition is irreversible.
“definitely thousands” have lost their lives, indicated the humanitarian coordinator of United Nations for Somalia, Adam Abdel Moulato reporters on Tuesday, although the data that corroborates his claim is not yet official.
salaad she left four other children with her husband. They were too weak to travel to Mogadishu, she said.
The drought comes and goes in the horn of africabut this time it is unique. Humanitarian assistance has been undermined by global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine. The prices of basic products such as wheat and cooking oil are increasing rapidly, in some places by more than 100%. Millions of head of cattle that provide families with milk, meat and wealth have died. Even therapeutic feeding to treat cases like that of the son of salaad it is getting more and more expensive and, in some places, it could run out.
And, for the first time, the rains might not come, for the fifth season in a row.
A “explosion of child deaths” stalks the horn of africa If the world focuses only on war in Ukraine and he doesn’t act anymore, he said UNICEF on Tuesday.
Famine threatens even Somalia’s capital as displacement camps on the outskirts swell with exhausted new arrivals. salaad and her son were turned away from a crowded hospital when they arrived a week ago.
Instead, they were sent to a treatment center for people with extreme malnutrition where rooms are full, extra beds have been made available and some have to sleep on the floor. Mothers wince and babies cry as their little bodies, with sores and marked ribs, are carefully checked for signs of recovery.
“The center is overflowing”, stated one of his doctors, Mustafa Yusuf. In May, admissions more than doubled to 122 patients.
At least 30 people died there and in six other facilities managed by Action Against Hunger between January and April, according to the humanitarian group. The number of admissions in its centers is the highest since it began working in the country in 1992, and the number of children with severe malnutrition increased by 55% compared to last year.
Total, at least 448 people have lost their lives so far this year (until April) in hospitals and clinics for the treatment of malnutrition across the country, according to data collected by humanitarian groups and local authorities.
The aid workers warn that the data is incomplete and that the total mortality caused by the drought is difficult to quantify.
“We know from experience that mortality spikes when all the conditions are right — displacement, disease outbreaks, and malnutrition — and we’re seeing all of that right now in Somalia.“, said Biram Ndiayehead of nutrition UNICEF in Somalia.
Mortality surveys conducted in some parts of the country in December, and again in April and May, by the UN Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit showed a “severe and rapid deterioration in a very short time”. The most alarming situation was recorded in the region of Bayin the south of the country, where adult mortality almost tripled, child mortality more than doubled and severe malnutrition multiplied by three.
Deaths and acute malnutrition have reached “unusually high levels” in much of the south and center of the countryand the admission of children under 5 years of age with this pathology increased by more than 40% compared to the same period last year, according to the Network of Famine Early Warning Systems.
A major complication in the count is the extremist group Al-Shabab, whose control of large parts of the south and center of the country is an obstacle to the arrival of aid. Their harsh response to the famine caused by drought between 2010 and 2012 contributed to the more than 250,000 recorded deaths, half of them children.
Another factor was the slow response from the international community. “A drama without witnesses”, said then the humanitarian coordinator of the UN for Somalia.
Now the alarms are ringing again.
More than 200,000 people face “catastrophic hunger and starvation, a dramatic increase from the 81,000 predicted in April.”said a joint statement from agencies of the UN on Monday, which pointed out that barely 18% of the total financing of the humanitarian response plan for this year has been covered.
Somalia Not alone. In the regions of Ethiopia affected by the pandemic, the number of children treated for the most serious malnutrition — “the tip of the iceberg” — soared 27% in the first quarter of this compared to the same period in 2021, according to UNICEF. The rise reached 71% in Kenyawhere Doctors without borders reported at least 11 deaths in a center of its program to tackle malnutrition at the beginning of the year.
In one of the crowded camps for displaced people on the outskirts of Mogadishuthe newcomers recounted with anguish the death of their relatives.
“I left some of my children behind to take care of those who suffer“, said Amina Abdi-Hassan, who came from a southern village with her malnourished baby. They continue to go hungry because aid is running out, even in the capital. “Many more are on the way”, he added.
Hawa Abdi Osman He noted that his children died from the drought. Emaciated and weakened by another pregnancy, she walked for five days to reach Mogadishu.
“We had to leave some of our relatives behind, and others died while we watched.”, explained his cousin, Halima Ali Dhubow.
Every day more people arrive at the camp, using their last remnants of energy to build makeshift huts in the dust, mixing branches with cloth and plastic. Some walked up to 19 days to get there, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“Only last night, 120 families arrived”, said the director of the camp, Nadifa Hussein. “We are giving them the few supplies we have, like bread. The number of people is so overwhelming that helping them is beyond our ability. Before, aid agencies collaborated, but now the aid is very scarce”.
“Only God can help them“, he claimed.
(C) The Associated Press.-
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