Habib Isack has left her home in Wajid, southern Somalia, for the first time – but not by choice. Drought killed her crops and her livestock. Sheer desperation drove her to take her children and set out on foot for Doolow, near the border with Ethiopia, in search of help. Report by Chris Niles
VIDEO: UNICEF correspondent Chris Niles reports on the massive scale-up of emergency aid efforts in response to the famine in southern Somalia.
“It took me nine days to get here from Wajid,” she said. “On the way, I was very hungry. We had no money to buy food. My husband sent me here alone, so I had to make the journey alone, carrying my children. I thought I’d die from hunger.”
Ms. Isack and her family are receiving three meals a day at the UNICEF-supported feeding centre at a displacement camp in Doolow. The camp is part of programme to help the millions of Somalis who have been driven out of their homes by famine and conflict.
Children at immediate risk
Many people at the feeding centre have faced long and dangerous journeys to get to Doolow and are in poor health.
The famine, which could spread to all of southern Somalia in the next few weeks, has already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, half of them children under the age of five. The lives of more than a million children are at immediate risk.
Stepped-up response
UNICEF and its partners are racing to step up their emergency response to the crisis in Somalia and the rest of the Horn of Africa. So far, the agency has brought in enough supplies to feed 65,000 children in southern Somalia. An estimated $177 million will be needed to reach all Somali children in need over the next six months.
Read Chris Niles full report on our blog