Drought in Africa: 7-month-old babies weigh as much as babies

Mihag Gedi Farah, who is Somalia, is 7 months old but has a modest weight, equivalent to a newborn boy, while his skin resembles an old man.

Mihag Gedi Farah's skinny body and wrinkled face.

When her mother brought her to the 'field hospital' of the International Relief Committee (IRC) at a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya after a week-long walk, Mihag was in critical condition.

Mihag is a typical image of the famine that is raging in the Horn of Africa, in which Somalia is the hardest hit.

Mihag's miserable eyes, both sides of her cheeks sunk and thin, show how serious the famine in Somalia has become.

Officials have warned that 800,000 children may die of starvation across the Horn of Africa. Aid workers are rushing to bring aid to dangerous and previously unreachable areas of Somalia, which have been hit hard by the most severe drought in 60 years.

The United Nations estimates that more than 11 million people in East Africa are affected by severe drought, of which 3.7 million people in Somalia are among the worst affected by the ongoing civil war. perform in this country.

Somalia's prolonged drought has become a famine partly because the Somali government and many aid organizations are unable to access areas controlled by al-Qaeda-linked rebels. The United Nations is expected to declare hunger in all southern Somalia on August 1.

Everyone queues up for food aid in Mogadishu, Somalia.

The United Nations said it would move emergency supplies at the end of the week in an attempt to reach at least 175,000 of the 2.2 million Somali people who had not been previously helped.

New food assistance efforts in four counties in southern Somalia, near the border with Kenya and Ethiopia, could begin today, thus preventing people who are leaving their homes from going to refugee camps with hope to reach relief.

Grants are also particularly necessary to sustain relief efforts in the Horn of Africa. The United Nations said the organization needed $ 1.6 billion within 12 months, with $ 300 million of them for the next three months, to carry out relief work.