Somalia on brink of famine. Can new tools, timely aid avert the worst?
Standing amid a sprawling camp of makeshift tents, Suado Hassan Abdi, a Somali mother with five young children, can’t even calculate the scale of her family’s losses.
The worst drought to strike Somalia in 40 years – marked by four failed rainy seasons in a row, with a fifth likely to come – desiccated the crops she had planted with her husband, leaving no food or fodder.
At the door of her tent, Ms. Abdi struggles to take stock, days after arriving in this congested camp on the outskirts of Baidoa, the drought-stricken epicenter of a nation stalked by famine.
Three of her children hover listlessly beside their new abode: mud-smeared layers of tarps pulled across a small frame of tree branches.
How many camels, cows, and goats did they lose?
“Uncountable,” replies Ms. Abdi, looking down. “They died.”
The unfolding tragedy that triggered this family’s decision to move, to escape the clutches of drought and conflict, echoes
