Collateral Crisis: The Catastrophic Famine in Somalia

2 minute read

In a world with more than enough to feed itself, all hunger is an unnecessary tragedy—but this year’s famine in southern Somalia is a true scar on the world’s conscience. Over six days in Mogadishu in early August, TIME contract photographer Dominic Nahr and I found appalling suffering and death among the hundreds of thousands of refugees who had fled famine in the south of the country.

Worse, we discovered one reason why 2.8 million people are at risk of starvation is a U.S. anti-terrorism policy that, however unwittingly, effectively blocked aid to the famine areas for years. We also found an international food aid operation that, though some aid agencies claim heroic success in their fund-raising campaigns, in fact only covers 20 percent of the population in need.

Hiring gunmen to protect us from militias and remnants of the Islamist militant group, al-Shabab, Nahr and I toured the refugee camps that have sprung up on any spare space in Mogadishu: on waste-ground, over a graveyard, among the ruins of the old city cathedral. The only aid agencies we saw working in the camps were a group from Islamic Relief and small food and shelter distribution operations put together by Somali businessmen as well as clan and religious leaders. In repeated visits to Banadir Hospital, which houses Somalia’s only children’s ward, we documented the last hours of several children. All the while planes of food aid could be seen landing at Mogadishu airport: out of security fears, little of those supplies were being taken the last few miles to the hungry.

Drought set the conditions for this year’s famine in East Africa. But it was man who ensured it.

For Alex Perry’s full story on the crisis in Somalia, click here.

Alex Perry is TIME‘s Africa bureau chief. His latest book, “How to Change the World, One Dead Mosquito at a Time“, will be published in September. Dominic Nahr, a TIME contract photographer, photographed the Arab Spring in Egypt. Nahr is represented by Magnum.

Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
A malnourished child with tuberculosis is bathed by his mother in Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, August 9, 2011. A day later the child died.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Rukiah Yousuf, left, sits next to her dead infant son Abdullahi, covered by a sheet; 9‑year-old Abshir, far right, died soon after.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Heavily armed soldiers patrol former al-Shabab territory in Mogadishu, August 8, 2011.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Internally displaced people find shelter in a bullet-ridden house near the Hodan refugee camp in Mogadishu, August 9, 2011. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people have flooded to the capital in search of food and shelter.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Relatives of Umar Usman, 7, clean his body after he died from malnutrition at Banadir Hospital. His family was forced to delay his burial because they couldn’t find a grave site. Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Selman Mohamed, 4, walks the corridors of Banadir Hospital with the help of his mother.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
A malnourished 5-month-old girl, named Farhiya, is held by her mother in a refugee camp in Mogadishu.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Family members gather around their sick children inside the Banadir Hospital.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
The grandfather of Abdullahi, 1, closes his grandson's eyes after he died from malnutrition in Banadir Hospital.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Private security guards stand next to a refugee camp that was previously on the front lines of battle between government troops and the al-Shabab.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Hundreds of Somali women and their children wait outside a mobile medical unit supplying medicine in the Badbaado camp, August 10, 2011.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Refugee camps surround Mogadishu. Children wander through the Madina camp, August 9, 2011. Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Internally displaced people build shelters in an old Italian cathedral in the Hamar Weyne district of Mogadishu, August 11, 2011.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
A malnourished child is protected by a mosquito net in Banadir hospital, August 11, 2011.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Children amid the shelters recently built in a dilapidated cathedral in the Hamar Weyne district of Mogadishu.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
A mother and her child, along with other refugees, take shelter in the cathedral, August 11, 2011.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
In Mogadishu, most refugees crowd into makeshift shelters like these in Madina Camp, August 9, 2011.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
Somalia, Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME
A child is covered by a sheet after dying in Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, August 10, 2011.Dominic Nahr—Magnum for TIME

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