![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/somalia-drought-one-boys-fight-to-save-his-family-from-starvation/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/127607906_mediaitem127603853.jpg&description=Image source, BBC/ Ed HabershonImage caption, Dahir had previously told the BBC he just wants to "survive" the drought in SomaliaDahir's brother died of hunger. Now two of his sisters are fighting sickness and malnutrition. The BBC's Andrew Harding returns to Baidoa to revisit a family forced to flee Somalia's worst drought in 40 years, as authorities urge the international community to recognise the crisis as a famine.Warning: This article contains images some readers may find distressingEleven-year-old Dahir weaves his way between a growing cluster of homemade huts on the edge of Baidoa, heading to a tin-roofed school building near the main road. He is wearing his only shirt and trousers, and clutching his one other possession - a new schoolbook.The school's sole teacher, Abdullah Ahmed, 29, writes English days of the week on the blackboard, as Dahir, and perhaps 50 classmates, recite: "Saturday, Sunday, Monday...".For a few minutes, a burst of interest energises the children, but soon the yawns and coughs resume - signs of the hunger and sickness that echo, like a grim soundtrack, across the plateau of rocky ground around Baidoa that has become home in recent months for hundreds of thousands of civilians, displaced by the worst drought to hit Somalia for 40 years."I think at least 30 of these children have not had breakfast. Sometimes they come to me to tell me of their hunger," says Mr Ahmed. "They struggle to concentrate, or even to come to class." Image source, BBC/ Ed HabershonImage caption, Young children have been dying in growing numbers in the country's fight against droughtSix weeks ago, on our last visit to this part of southern Somalia, Dahir sat, weeping, beside his mother Fatuma, outside the family's flimsy home-made hut. A few days earlier, his younger brother, Salat, had starved to death on the journey into Baidoa from the drought-parched countryside. Salat was buried a few metres away. Now the grave is surrounded by huts built by newer arrivals."I){kind=link}
Dahir’s brother died of hunger. Now two of his sisters are fighting sickness and malnutrition. The BBC’s Andrew Harding returns to Baidoa to revisit a family forced to flee Somalia’s worst drought in 40 years, as authorities urge the international community to recognise the crisis as a famine.
Warning: This article contains images some readers may find distressing
Eleven-year-old Dahir weaves his way between a growing cluster of homemade huts on the edge of Baidoa, heading to a tin-roofed school building near the main road. He is wearing his only shirt and trousers, and clutching his one other possession – a new schoolbook.
The school’s sole teacher, Abdullah Ahmed, 29, writes English days of the week on the blackboard, as Dahir, and perhaps 50 classmates, recite: “Saturday, Sunday, Monday…”.
For a few minutes, a burst of interest energises the children, but soon the yawns and coughs resume – signs of the hunger and sickness that echo, like a grim soundtrack, across the plateau of rocky ground around Baidoa that has become home in recent months for hundreds of thousands of civilians, displaced by the worst drought to hit Somalia for 40 years.