Somalia’s drought once again has thousands on the move
GARASBALEY, Somalia — Tears fill Sahra Muse’s eyes as she stares at her severely malnourished son, his thin arms crossed over his bloated stomach.
Before he succumbed to hunger, 7-year-old Ibrahim Ali had helped his mother herd the family’s 30 cows on their farm in Toratorow, a village in Lower Shabelle region. But the family lost all they had to the growing drought.
The 32-year-old Muse walked for three days to reach this wind-swept camp 13 kilometres (8 miles) south of Somalia’s capital earlier this week, leaving behind her other three children and their father.
“Life is becoming so hard. We have nothing to survive, and I don’t know how long he will survive,” Muse said of her son. She sat in a small hut made of sticks. Rubbing her bloodshot eyes, she said the boy’s cries had kept her awake for days.