Rueters: Famine squeezes life out of southern Somalia

From Rueters:

The semi-arid lands surrounding the frontier town of Dhobley in southern Somalia have become a dust-bowl, the thorny scrub stripped of all vegetation as famine grips the region and an exodus of the starving empties its villages.

Dhobley's buildings are riddled with bullet holes, the scars of battles earlier this year when Somali troops and fighters from the Ras Kamboni militia, allied to the embattled government, routed Islamist militants from the frontier town.

[. . .]

Abdullahi Abdisalam can only watch as the region's worst drought in decades decimates his livestock herd and pushes food prices beyond the reach of most, slowly squeezing the life out his small grocery shack.

"I had invested everything in those cattle. Most have died, the others are so skinny they're worthless," said Abdisalam, running his hand through a large sack of beans.

[. . .]

Across Somalia, harvests have failed. Nearly all the food available in Dhobley's local stores is imported.

To bring it to Dhobley from the militant-controlled port of Kismayu, traders are forced to run a gauntlet of road-blocks at which "taxes" are frequently extorted.

[. . .]

The drought and famine have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 in the last three months in southern Somalia alone, according to U.S. estimates.