Half of Somalia's population hungry as drought bites

The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in four decades.

Up to 20 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, according to the World Food Programme, could starve to death by the end of the year.

With half of the population currently going hungry, Somalia is suffering the worst.

In rural Somalia, hundreds of thousands of people are leaving their homes and moving to internal displacement camps.

Their harvests have failed, their fields are bare, and their roadways are littered with the carcasses of their dead animals. Experts claim that this drought is the worst in the last ten years, and hunger is imminent.

There are a large number of unaccompanied youngsters in the camps.

Because their moms are confined to hospitals, where the prevalence of acute malnutrition is at an all-time high, and their fathers have gone to towns in search of food, older siblings have taken on the job of caregivers.

There are now reports of deaths. Records show that between May and June, at least 26 children perished in one center in Baidoa.

I still play with a few of the girls I used to play with. In a shaky shack at the camp in Baidoa, 13-year-old Fardhosa speaks to the BBC about the refugees who have perished and those who have relocated to the capital city of Mogadishu where they work as house helpers.

According to the nonprofit Save the Children, both children and the people who look after them are experiencing more psychosocial stress.

"Negative childhood experiences result in... children needing psychosocial support… Parents say children are becoming violent and aggressive," says Mahamoud Hassan, the organization's Somalia country director.