“My son died of hunger,” says mother in Somalia who must put her grief aside and find food

Related Articles

​Somalia and China discuss enhancing academic and research cooperation

April 11, 2026

​Somali Ministry of Education announces Master’s scholarship winners

April 11, 2026

​Somalia strengthens academic and technological partnerships with China

April 10, 2026

MOGADISHU — Baidoa has become one of the main centres for internally displaced persons from the South-West region and local partners say at least a 100 persons arrive every day at the more than 400 IDP camps. All humanitarian agencies, including UNICEF and other UN organizations are working with a renewed urgency to avert the looming famine.

UNICEF and partners are stocking health and nutrition centres with therapeutic foods and medicines to prevent malnutrition and to treat common illnesses; increasing emergency trucking for clean drinking water; conducting immunization campaigns and nutrition evaluations of children in the camps; and rolling out a new Education in Emergencies programme to provide children a space to learn.

UNICEF is also working to prevent and respond to cases of gender based violence (GBV) and to protect children from abuse and harm, through the establishment of a 24/7 hotline telephone. This includes a referral and treatment centre for victims at the Ceebla One Stop Centre in the Bay Regional Hospital.

On the ground the needs are evolving say local partners, as the numbers keep increasing by the day. They warn that more needs to be done and that they need more resources to prevent a catastrophe.

As we watch, a new family arrives, their donkey-cart laden with their meagre belongings; the women and children tired from the long walk to this unusual place dotted with orange and white tents, where they will build a new home, under a tarp and propped with string and twigs; once proud people, forced to wait a handout, just to survive.

We walk behind Fatuma and come across Binta Hassan and her nine children, also displaced, also destitute and hungry. The story again all too familiar.

We follow Fatuma to the outskirts of the camp, her thin rubber sandals stirring small puffs of dust.

She stops and stands before a mound of overturned earth, scarred by a few dead cacti and empty plastic bags that litter the outskirts of this ever-expanding camp. This is where she buried her son. “He was a good boy, my son, I wish he didn’t have to die.”

Source: UNICEF    Origin: View original