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In Somaliland, the threat of famine looms large. Drought has forced hundreds of thousands out of their homes in search of food, water, and medicine. These are their stories.

Sabaad Mohammud Mussa, 23, with eight-year-old Saeeda, five-year-old Nasra, and three-year-old Mohammad at her temporary home in the Barbayaal Ciyou Settlement in the Sanaag region of Somaliland. Photo: Petterik Wiggers/Oxfam

Sabaad Mohammud Mussa (23) portions out a meal of injera bread, rice, and tea to her three young children, all under the age of eight. This will be the only meal they eat all day, so they will have to make it last. Mussa, who is raising her children on her own at the moment, has enough food to sustain them for four days. After that, she says, she’s not sure what they will do.

In the village of Wandabeley, she and her husband once raised 30 camels and 800 goats, which they traded for food and money. However, in the last three months, starvation and illness have whittled their livestock down to three camels and 15 goats.

“When we needed money, we used to sell one camel and buy the things we needed,” she says. “Now we have almost no camels and therefore, no savings, no income, and nothing to eat.”

For the sake of her children, she was forced to make a hard decision. While her husband ventured off in search of fresh water and grass to keep their remaining animals alive, Mussa brought her children to the Garadag district in the Sanaag region of Somaliland. Mussa hasn’t seen her husband in eight months and because she has no phone, she has not been able to get in touch with him.

Families like hers who are settled in Garadag are luckier than most as they have access to a school and a clinic for women and children. Oxfam partners Candlelight and Havoyoco are providing people with clean water, sanitation, and cash transfers for food and medicine. And because of that, the district, which had a population of 12,200 in 2014, has seen an influx of 1,000 families since the drought began.

Mussa is one of more than nearly 3 million people who are dangerously hungry in Somalia.

Awad Ali, 87, left his home in Scalid Sigoter for the Barbayaal Ciyou Settlement. Photo: Petterik Wiggers/Oxfam

Awad Ali, a wiry 87-year-old with a henna-flecked beard, stays in the same Barbayaal Ciyou Settlement as Mussa. “I have seen many droughts in my lifetime,” he says. “This is the worst one.”

Fatuma Jama, 60, is settled in Fadigaab, a village in Somaliland that has taken in hundreds of internally displaced families. Photo: Petterik Wiggers/Oxfam

Fatuma Jama (60) lives in Fadigaab, a village nine miles from Garadag. The water there is becoming undrinkable. She says the salty water has afflicted her family with flu and diarrhea. She is not alone; many people in the village are sick and the nearest hospital is in Burao, which is more than 120 miles away.

Jama comes from a family of herders who used to own 300 sheep. Between July and August 2016, their sheep start dying off due to lack of pastures, until they were left with only two. “We have never seen such drought,” she says. “The richest man is now poor, and the poor have become poorer.”

Before the drought, Jama’s grandchildren were able to attend school. Now, there’s no money for food, let alone education. She says there is nothing for them to do besides help with chores, like fetching water. Her 11-year-old granddaughter, Fardhuz Mohammed, hasn’t been to school in six months and she says she misses reading and seeing her friends.

Jama’s eyesight has recently worsened to the point where she has trouble seeing. “I don’t know what is going to happen if the rains don’t come,” she says.

For now, they pray for rain.

Some of the names in this story have been changed to protect the security of the individuals.

Oxfam’s humanitarian response to the crisis in Somalia started this week. Our immediate plan is to help at least 20,000 people initially by providing clean water, sanitation and cash to buy food, and to reach a further 200,000 people with a longer-term response over the next 12 months.

Help us kick off and extend our humanitarian response by donating today.

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In South Sudan, the violent and brutal war has put millions at risk. Women, men and children that fled their homes in search of safety are now finding a new threat – hunger. With harvests still months away, the famine already declared in parts of the country will spread across the rest of the country, unless we act now.

Majok at the WFP registration site in Nyal. He had to make a one and a half hour trek, helped by family members, from his home to Nyal to ensure he was physically present for the registration. Photo: Bruno Bierrenbach Feder/Oxfam. 

When the rains begin in April or May, conditions will become even more difficult for the people in need and for the humanitarian groups trying to reach them. Flooding makes roads and airstrips impassable and can cause a rise in cholera and other water-borne diseases.

George* sits on his mother’s lap as health personnel takes his measurements to determine his nutrition level. There are 208 malnutrition cases in this hospital in Nyal, Unity State. These don’t include the many adults facing extreme hunger in the area.

Nearly 5 million people – 40 percent of the population – are facing extreme hunger. “We are seeing communities now at breaking point. In the swamps between the famine-affected areas and where Oxfam is working, we know that there are thousands of people going desperately hungry,” says Dorothy Sang, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Campaign Manager in South Sudan.

Panjiyar County, in southern Unity State, sits next to the frontline of some of the heaviest fighting we are seeing in South Sudan today. It is no coincidence that this frontline is also home to the 100,000 people who have been hit by deadly famine. Many have travelled for days on foot to reach generous host communities, who themselves are now sharing what little food they have with their neighbors waiting for that next food assistance in order to survive.

An elderly woman at the registration site in Nyal Catholic church, South Sudan. She came from Nyandong Payam with the help of family members. Photo: Bruno Bierrenbach Feder/Oxfam

So far, Oxfam and other humanitarian organizations have been able to help to keep famine from spreading with food distributions, clean water and other vital aid. So far, we have been distributing food to more than 415,000 people as well as providing more than 140,000 people clean water and sanitation services.

Oxfam staff Pedro Marial Rock takes the fingerprint signatures of Nyabiey (left) and Nyakonga (right) to verify they are receiving food at a distribution in Nyal on March 20, 2017. Photo: Lauren Hartnett/Oxfam

In Nyal, Panyijar County, some of the most vulnerable people from surrounding islands arrive exhausted after hours on Oxfam canoes. They are here to register for a World Food Programme food distribution. We are using these canoes and paying canoe operators to make sure that those who are unable to pay are not left out.

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Oxfam International’s Executive Director Winnie Byanyima is visiting Nigeria, where millions have been displaced by conflict and are desperately hungry. She writes of what she has seen so far.

Winnie, Nigel and the team visited Oxfam’s programs in and around Maidaguri, in northeast Nigeria. Oxfam is responding to the crisis there by providing access to food through distributions and cash for people to use in local markets, clean water and sanitation and helping people to keep themselves safe. During the visit, they met with senior State Government leadership, including the Deputy Governor, the Secretary to the State Government and the State Attorney General. They discussed key issues including the stark number of people at risk of starvation in the state, improving coordination between the humanitarian community and the state government, government funding and leadership in the response and secondary displacement.

They also visited Kushari, an area of Maiduguri, which is in Northeast Nigeria, where local families and those who have arrived in town fleeing violence live together and share what little they have. They heard examples of host families giving those in greater need their clothes, food and more to help support them. This generosity in the face of one’s own dire need is an inspiring common theme across this hunger crisis, which comes from the tradition and culture of community that has always been so strong in this region and the rest of Africa. Oxfam rehabilitated two boreholes in Kushari, giving both local and displaced families access to safe and clean water.

Photos: Tom Saater/Oxfam.

A four-day weekend and an excuse to eat chocolate? Yes please!

We’re definitely chocolate consumers here at Oxfam, but we believe in eating the right chocolate. The fairly traded chocolate.

Here’s four reasons why we think buying Fairtrade is best:

1) The farmers who grow the cocoa beans – the foundation for chocolate itself – can support themselves and their families.

With a lot of the chocolate we buy from the supermarket, only a tiny percentage of what we pay actually gets back to the farmers who grow the cocoa beans. The big companies capture the lion’s share of profits from trade of these products and use their power to pay the growers as little as possible leaving them struggling to feed their families, send their children to school, and sometimes even cover their production costs. Most of their villages lack basic services such as clean water and toilets.

Buying Fairtrade means that these farmers get a fair amount of money in exchange for their product – cocoa beans – and the work they put into producing it. Being paid a fair amount means farmers can cover production costs and have enough left over to live. They can feed their families, drink safe water, access healthcare, send their children to school, and obtain the basic things they need.

Maria Daniel, a female cocoa farmer, dries cocoa beans on the ground outside her house in the village of Oke Agbede Isale in Western Nigeria. Many women farmers in southwest Nigeria cultivate cocoa beans used by major global companies. Photo: George Osodi/Panos for Oxfam America.

2) The chocolate you’re eating involved no child labour at any stage in its manufacturing.

In some cases, low incomes mean the children of farmers need to work in order to help the family make ends meet. As well as being deprived of an education, children are often engaged in dangerous work, such as using machetes and applying toxic pesticides.

Fairtrade standards prohibit the use of forced labour and children are not allowed to work if it jeopardises their education or health.

3) Fairly paid farmers can invest in local development projects to help their community.

Fairtrade guarantees a premium for farmers over and above the world price, enabling them to invest in local development projects like schools, healthcare and drinking water for their communities.Conscious chocolate choices can help a whole village.

4) Buying Fairtrade is a simple way to play a part in fighting global extreme poverty.

Over 10 million people in West Africa alone are dependent on cocoa farming for their income. But the low prices of commodities like cocoa mean that poverty is widespread amongst the cocoa farming communities.

Being paid fairly means that these farmers can earn a steady, decent income, and therefore have the means to work themselves out of poverty and thrive. Buying Fairtrade can be your way of giving a hand-up to a family in need.

(Surprise reason number 5) It’s delicious! Find it here:

Trade Aid has stores all over the country, and stocks a wide range of Fairtrade chocolate in many different flavours.

Whittaker’s Dark Ghana and Creamy Milk chocolate are both Kiwi favourites – and they’re Fairtrade! Available at supermarkets all across the country.

Wellington Chocolate Factory sells pretty much every flavour of chocolate you can think of – from salted brittle caramel to their craft beer bar – and it’s all ethically traded. They have stockists across the country.

Famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan. Yemen, Somalia and Nigeria are only a step away from the same fate. 20 million people are at risk of starvation and 50 million are severely hungry.

This is the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II. If it’s left unresolved, malnutrition and death will dramatically increase.

Nyadak, and her daughter (pictured), moved to an island near Nyal to escape the violence gripping many parts of South Sudan. Nyadak is sick, so her daughter takes care of her. “My daily routine is to ensure I make food for her, take her to the toilet since she has no power to do so. The food we get here comes from Kawaini (white people – referring to Oxfam). I just want to thank them for doing that… Since my mother got sick the thought of ever going to school is next to impossible, especially now. If I get the chance to go to school, I would like to be a doctor so that I can treat people like my mother who are suffering from diseases.” Photo: Bruno Bierrenbach Feder/Oxfam.

Alongside our partners, Oxfam is currently responding to all four crises providing access to crucial aid – including clean water, toilets, showers and cash for food – and we’re working to make sure this is available for everyone.

• In South Sudan we’ve helped over 600,000 people since 2016
• In Nigeria we’re reached 300,000 people since mid-2014
• In Yemen we’ve helped over 1 million people since mid-2015
• In Somalia we’re launching a humanitarian response, where we’ve already established development programmes

Here are four need-to-knows about famine, and the four that are affecting millions today.

1) Once a famine is declared, people are already dying.

The IPC is a five-level scale classifying how severe food insecurity in an area is. Famine is Phase 5. It’s declared when a substantial number of people have died from hunger, either on its own or with associated disease. Across four countries, 20 million people are, or are very close to, experiencing this.

Famine means:

• 20% of households in an area are facing extreme food shortages
• 30% of the population is facing extreme malnourishment
• There are two or more deaths in a day per 10,000 people due to food shortage

Famine is as much about lack of access to clean water and poor hygiene practises as it is about a lack of access to food.

• South Sudan: 4.9 million people currently in IPC Phases 3-5 (100,000 already in famine)
• Yemen: 6.8 million people in IPC Phase 4
• Somalia: nearly 3 million people in IPC Phases 3-4
• Nigeria: at least 4.4 million people in IPC Phases 3-5

2) Ongoing conflict is the main catalyst.

Along with weak governance and poor access, continued conflict is driving the situation in all four affected countries. A brutal civil war in South Sudan has put millions at risk. Women, men and children that fled their homes in search of safety are now faced with a new issue – hunger. In Nigeria, conflict between the government and Boko Haram continues and is the main cause of wide-spread, severe hunger in the region. Two years of war in Yemen, and conflict paired with a massive drought in Somalia, are resulting in poor food security for the two nations and is pushing them dangerously close to famine.

3) Oxfam, and other organisations, are providing life-saving aid and resources.

In South Sudan Oxfam is providing crucial access to food and aid through free canoe transport for locals living in swampy areas or on islands. We have trained locals to operate the canoes, which help them earn money to support their families. We are supporting local partner organisations in distributing emergency food and are continuing to provide clean water and sanitation services to help stop the spread of diseases like cholera and diarrhoea, which can lead to malnutrition and prove fatal. It is essential that Oxfam positions aid supplies before the rainy season begins in April/May and the situation worsens.

In Nigeria we have delivered food, cash and vouchers for local markets, as well as installed tap stands, showers and toilets to help prevent the spread of disease. Oxfam hopes to help up to 500,000 people here in 2017.

In Somalia we are launching a programme to provide people with the basic essentials – clean water, sanitation facilities and cash assistance so people can buy food. This work is focused on preventing water-borne diseases that are a real risk in this kind of crisis.

In Yemen three of the four governorates are at risk of famine. Oxfam is providing people with cash to allow them to buy food and livestock so they can eat and, where possible, generate more income. We’re continuing to provide clean water and hygiene kits to help manage the spread of diseases.

Gabrial Puol Thiel, an employed boat operator in South Sudan as part of Oxfam’s free canoe scheme, has been with Oxfam for the past two years and is motivated by the fact he is helping people in crisis. “I feel some sense of achievement when I carry a sick person to the hospital in the mainland and they get treated, or when I get some food to an elderly person who could have died of hunger.” Photo: Bruno Bierrenbach Feder/Oxfam.

4) We can avert a famine with your help.

If these crises go unresolved, malnutrition and death could reach even more catastrophic levels. But we can still stop the worse from happening and save lives. Where we have access, we are saving lives, but we need better access to all people in need, many of whom who are trapped by conflict.

The international community must act now – both to respond to needs in famine-affected areas and to hold back the hunger in areas at risk.

“To be clear, we can avert a famine,” said UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien. “We’re ready despite incredible risk and danger… but we need those huge funds now.”

1) Violence against women and girls is a global crisis

2) Economic inequality affects more women than men

3) Women do far more than their share of unpaid care work

4) Women’s rights to own land are under attack

5) Women and girls are disproportionately affected by conflict

6) Women are underrepresented in decision-making positions

7) Attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights

8) A different future is possible