South Sudan: where fighting has led to famine

More than three years of brutal conflict has resulted in widespread hunger, large-scale displacement, and the loss of agriculture and livestock.

The UN’s declaration of famine in South Sudan, made in February 2017, was the first anywhere in the world for six years.

Although a large-scale humanitarian response was able to halt the famine, the food security situation remains critical.

In total, 6.5 million people – roughly twice the population of Madrid – need urgent help across the country.

Nine long minutes

The oversized oxygen mask covered her tiny face.

Her breathing – which at first radiated pain – began to soften as she slept.

Jessica, a paediatric nurse from the International Committee of the Red Cross, swayed gently as she cradled the girl.

At five months old, little Nyanene was tiny – barely the size of a newborn baby.

“I’m so happy to see her sleep,” said Jessica. “She’s been through so much.”

In the background, a wounded air conditioner puffed limply, struggling against the heavy air in the emergency room.

Then, suddenly, the light in the room dropped from green fluorescent to grey shadow.

The generator died and with it Nyanene’s oxygen supply.

Jessica jumped up, checking her heart rate.

“If it’s under 60 we start CPR,” Jessica said.

Holding an airbag in her hands, Jessica pumped breaths into the child’s body.

Gbang, her assistant, pressed his two thumbs deep into the baby’s chest, pumping its heart.

“We’re going 15 minutes before we call it, okay?” said Jessica, before adding with calm, “that’s really good. You’re doing a really good job.”

Can we get the generator back on? A call is made but the dark remains.

Can you check the heart rate? What’s the heart rate? Jessica relieved Gbang and started pressing her thumbs into Nyanene’s chest.

This baby, the one Jessica knew was hungry for life, wasn’t responding. Her young mother sat on the bed, within arm’s length of her child.

As the clock ticked over to 2.20pm, Jessica, collecting herself for a beat, turned to her left and touched the mother’s leg.

Moments later, just nine minutes after cutting out, the fluorescent lights flicker on. Nine minutes was sadly too long for little Nyanene.

Yemen: life on the edge

Cholera is just one symptom of the devastation wrought by Yemen’s two-year conflict in which more than 10,000 people have lost their lives.

There are now around 6,300 new cases of the disease every day. More than 1,700 people have already died. The World Health Organisation has called it “the worst cholera outbreak in the world”.

Food insecurity naturally triggers increases in epidemics such as acute watery diarrhea/cholera and measles. This is because malnourished people are less able to fight off infection, and lack of access to safe water and sanitation allows disease to spread across communities.

It is also, particularly cruelly, the very young and very old who are most susceptible to the disease.

“There is no food”

Ahmed Ali, his wife and children live in a tent after fighting forced them to flee their home.

Earning a pittance working as a cobbler, Ahmed said: “I keep hoping we can soon go back to our home town and the peaceful lives we used to lead.

“Life here is very difficult. There is no water, no food, no medicine and no stability.”

Somalia: famine looms large

The spectre of famine has again reared its head in Somalia, only six years after a devastating famine killed more than a quarter of a million people in the east African nation.

Two consecutive poor rainy seasons have resulted in severe water shortages. Thousands of animals – essential for people’s livelihoods – have perished due to the lack of water and pasture. Crops too have failed.

The UN estimates that up to 6.2 million people are in need of urgent help – over half of Somalia’s population.

Large numbers of people are on the move searching for food and water.

Parts of the country are also blighted by protracted conflict. Where the fighting is preventing humanitarian agencies from reaching people in need, the situation is particularly severe.

Little Abdikaafi

More than 70,000 children are at risk of dying from the most severe form of malnutrition.

At five months old, little Abdikaafi is one of them.

He weighs just three kilos – the normal weight of a newborn baby.

Mothers are looking on helplessly as their children lose the strength to eat.

The Red Cross is supporting specialist malnutrition centres across the region.

In many cases, they are the difference between a mother’s joy and a mother’s grief.

Nigeria: the hungry cost of conflict

After years of conflict, severe food shortages are now a reality for more than four million people in north-eastern Nigeria.

The conflict has uprooted more than two million as people move in search of safety and food, both within Nigeria and across borders in the region surrounding Lake Chad.

Around 90 per cent of those have found shelter with host communities that are among the poorest in the world.

This has placed great pressure on already weak infrastructure and resources, giving way to disease and food shortages.

Caught up in the crisis

An estimated 450,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Nigeria.

When one-year-old Aboubacar was weighed at the state hospital, he weighed only 10.4 pounds – the average weight of a 1-month-old baby.

His family had made it to an informal camp outside Maiduguri after fleeing violence a few months earlier. But since arriving, they had struggled to find enough food to survive.

Sixteen days after first arriving in hospital, Aboubacar sadly died.

Across the region, other families face similar anguish.

Kenya: going to school hungry

Northern and parts of coastal Kenya are severely affected by recurrent drought.

The lack of rainfall, which has led to crop failure and livestock deaths, has doubled the number of Kenyans living without adequate food supplies from 1.6 million to 2.7 million in just six months.

Around 85,000 children are at risk of dying.

The Kenyan government has declared a national emergency and has asked for international support.

On top of food shortages, Kenya has been affected by outbreaks of cholera – a potentially fatal disease – over the last two years.

"Everyone in the village is sick"

Thirty years after building his school with his bare hands, head teacher Bonaya Jillo is now struggling to keep it running.

A third of Bonaya’s 138 students have dropped out because of the drought this year.

"I wanted to make life better here but there are so many obstacles,” said 52-year-old Bonaya.

“I do not have an office, we do not have electrics, but the main problem at the moment is water.”

All the water points are either dried up or dirty. It’s having a severe impact on teaching and learning.

“Almost everyone in the village is sick,” continued Bonaya.

“Many pupils did not come to school today because they are sick, they have stomach ache, the entire village has stomach ache. So many people in our village are sick, all because of water.”

Ethiopia: in search of clean water

Ethiopia has also been blighted by the same drought affecting Somalia and Kenya.

Poor rainfall is expected in the southern and south-eastern parts of the country in the coming months, putting further pressure on water and pasture.

In total, 5.6 million people are food insecure in the country. Up to 9.2 million people are struggling to drink safe and clean water.

‘Even goats have no food’

In the Afar district in northern Ethiopia, people have been hoping in vain for much need rainfall. Severe drought has ruined harvests right across the country.

The drought makes access to food difficult in this country where the majority of people make their living from farming.

“The main income and livelihood in Afar is cattle, but almost all the cows have now died,” said Marjo Leppänen, who works in logistics for the Red Cross in Ethiopia.

“Even the goats are running out of food. The situation is very dire.”