More than 6.5 million Somalis are facing severe hunger as drought, floods and conflict drive displacement, with international aid cuts worsening the crisis, according to reports.
Zeynab Ibrahim, a 38-year-old single mother, lost four of her ten children to hunger before fleeing to a camp in Mogadishu. 'We tried every means to survive – selling dried grass and digging up water from the barren earth. Unfortunately, there was nothing left,' she said.
Adan Roble, 77, described losing his farmland to drought then floods, while government forces fought al-Shabaab nearby. 'Imagine losing everything and trying to survive without food and clean water, while fighting continues around you,' he said from a camp in Afgoye.
Nearly 1.9 million children under five face acute malnutrition, and 500 nutrition clinics have closed due to funding shortages, the UN reported. In Kismayo hospital, 700 malnourished children were admitted in three months, with ten deaths.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher described the situation as 'a moment of reckless geopolitics, of war, conflict, indifference and cruelty,' highlighting the compounding effects of climate change and funding cuts.
