Baidoa, SomaliaIn a makeshift shelter at one of the many camps for those displaced by the relentless drought punishing the Horn of Africa, Edaba Yusuf watches over the tiny body of her four-year-old son, Salman Mohamed Abdirahman, who died that morning from severe malnutrition and measles. He is the third child the mother of eight has lost to hunger in less than four weeks. 

Two of her boys died in their village in southwestern Somalia, which prompted the family to travel to Baidoa—a city surrounded by the al-Shabaab militant group but still accessible to humanitarian agencies that provide food, water, and medical treatment to help alleviate some of the desperation.

“They were hungry, and I had nothing to sell,” says Yusuf.  “I thought