Nearly eight million Somalis, or half the population, have been affected by the record-breaking drought, and the Somali authorities are scrambling to avert famine. As thousands of people flee starvation in the countryside to displaced camps in the city, Baidoa, the largest city in Somalia’s South West state, is bearing the brunt.
Southern Madagascar is experiencing severe hunger as food supplies have almost completely vanished, resulting in a full-fledged nutrition emergency. People have resorted to extreme measures such as consuming locusts, raw red cactus fruits, and wild leaves in order to survive. For the first time, pockets with the highest levels of Acute Food Insecurity – IPC phase 5 or “Catastrophe” – have been identified, signalling a worsening of hunger