“Statistics show that levels of malnutrition among children are higher than in the 2011 famine,” said Jamal Abdi Sarman, who works for the UN Children’s Charity. “This potentially indicates an impending famine in the near future. If intervention is not done as expected and quickly, we will inevitably witness mass child deaths in the coming months.” A “knockout blow” is coming to the war – most recently in Ukraine Image: Women gather outside the hut of a seriously ill baby and mother The dire prediction was confirmed by what Sky News saw in the arid interior of the self-proclaimed democracy east of Berbera. In villages that empty quickly, people know what is coming. We traveled inland for two hours, crossing dry riverbeds and passing one deserted house after another. In the village of Geyodadheer, two of the three wells have dried up and half the people have left unable to support themselves after the death of their animals. In the last well left, herds of camels watered their animals. Even these most resilient desert animals suffer, they said, in these extreme conditions. “Drought is bad,” said one, “but worse on the way.” Read more: Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports could turn food crisis into disaster Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 3:19 “The worst drought in a generation” There is no doubt about it. Temperatures have not yet reached their summer zenith and it seems that the rains will collapse for the fourth consecutive year. Somaliland, the “self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Somaliland”, is a hot, dry African country. It expects droughts but also years of rest. In bad years, people leave the villages and come to camps in the hope of feeding them, and then return as the rains return. But the rains have not returned for four years. Picture: The shepherds give their camels water from the only well that operates in the area Outside a village, we met the governor of the area, Ahmed Mohamed. The outside world needs to send aid, food and water, he told us, but he said the war in Ukraine was also making things worse. Follow the Daily Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker In Somalia, the main flour mill, the grain is gone. Ninety percent of the country’s cereals come from Russia and Ukraine. They have not been sent for three months. Its four silos should be full, but only one and a half have no grain. Director Tarek Saif told Sky News that he could not sleep at night, he was so worried about his workforce and the people of Somaliland. If the mill stops production, democracy loses its main source of bread. Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 2:40 Why Ukraine’s cereals are so important War and drought are now haunting Somalia and the entire Horn of Africa, threatening a humanitarian catastrophe. UNICEF’s Jamal Abdi Sarman told Sky News that there was an urgent need for international intervention: “So far UNICEF has doubled its emergency call to $ 250 million and only 20% of that amount has been funded.” Humanitarian organizations say that a hunger strike can only be a matter of time if no more is done. In 2011, a quarter of a million children under the age of five died. The world must act now to prevent a catastrophe from recurring on a similar scale.
