Somali famine

The Horn of Africa, a region that includes Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and eastern parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, is currently experiencing the worst drought the area has seen in over 60 years. Somalia is the worst-hit country, due to a combination of difficult agricultural conditions, violent conflicts and militant groups that have deprived the country of national stability and any assistance that western aid organizations might be able to provide. Current estimates suggest that 3 million Somalis are on the brink of starvation and over 10 million are at risk across the region.

As a result, tens of thousands of Somalis are evacuating, seeking refuge at refugee camps in neighboring countries. Most are fleeing to Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp, in eastern Kenya. Dadaab is currently home to nearly 400,000 refugees, but over 1,000 new refugees are arriving from Somalia each day, starving and having traveled for weeks to reach this possible safe-haven. To say this puts a strain on camp resources would be an incredible understatement. To give some perspective, Ali Addeh, a refugee camp in southern Djibouti where I've started some work, is strained by the arrival of 500 new refugees each month.

I feel like Somalia is one of those forgotten corners of the world about which most of us know little other than the Battle of Mogadishu (a.k.a Black Hawk Down), piracy and Islamic militancy (e.g. al-Shabaab). It worries me that a country with this reputation may not be able to receive the assistance it needs in the face of a drought that is as much a natural disaster as any earthquake or cyclone.