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On the outskirts of Somalia’s southern port city, land has become an open graveyard for cattle. Some are left where they fell, while others are buried in shallow graves after successive unsuccessful rainy seasons.<\/p>\n
For many families here, the herders who depend on livestock for milk, meat and income, the animals were everything, but what was once a lifeline of food and income has now become a grim symbol of loss.<\/p>\n
Its impact is being felt not only in Kismayo but across the country, where 6.5 million people are forced to skip meals and go hungry every day. Drought and rising costs are pushing the country deeper into crisis.<\/p>\n
Francesca Sangiorgi, humanitarian director of Save the Children, says the crisis is being driven by repeated climate shocks that are getting worse over time. \u201cWe are seeing multiple rainy seasons that have failed across the country,\u201d she tells Al Jazeera, adding that even when the rains do come, they are often very uneven and come too late to restore already collapsed livelihoods.<\/p>\n
What is the scale of the crisis?<\/strong><\/p>\n The hunger crisis in Somalia is severe and rapidly worsening.<\/p>\n One third of the population faces severe food insecurity (classified as IPC Phase 3 and above), with many families struggling to get enough food to meet their basic daily needs. (PDF<\/a>) – and in some cases going completely without food makes them more vulnerable to malnutrition and diseases such as diarrhea, measles and other infections.<\/p>\n Of these, more than 2 million people are in the most severe situation of famine (IPC Phase 4 or Emergency Level<\/a>), where families are facing extreme shortages and are being forced to undergo rapid displacement in search of basic needs, moving into already overcrowded aid camps where resources are rapidly depleting.<\/p>\n One of the most affected are children. According to the United Nations, a Estimated 1.8 million<\/a> Children under the age of five in Somalia are at risk of severe malnutrition, putting their survival at immediate risk.<\/p>\n