By Hana Jaber

About 9.1 million Somalis have been affected by the drought in the Horn of Africa since mid-July. But, not just Somalia has been affected by this severe drought. Ethiopia, Kenya, and other Northern African countries are also being affected. This drought has been considered one of the worst humanitarian crisis’ this year. It’s particularly affecting Somalia in a significant way.

It’s left about 2 million kids malnourished. Six out of every 10,000 kids die everyday in Somalia. Not just from not having clean water to drink, but from the rampant diseases that have spread throughout the region. There is no effective health treatment aided to the survivors of these diseases. Access to aid is hard to get to, so getting aid for diseases is extremely difficult. It gets worse because the refugee camps in the neighboring nations are hard to get to and unorganized. Some women have reported walking the whole way from Somalia to Kenya just to arrive at an over-flowed refugee camp with terrible living conditions for the residents already there. The water supplied to each refugee camp is so expensive that the residents begin fighting for the aid.

The deathly fights are more commonly seen around the region now, and is a symbol of the helplessness of the people. Because Somalia has no central government, and is a dispersed nation it is hard to give efficient aid and spread it out to each person in need. Right now Somalia’s only hope is foreign aid and organizations like the UN. If you want to donate to the cause, go to Just Giving foundation (http://www.justgiving.com/dp-somalia/) or to the Ummah Welfare Trust foundation (http://www.uwt.org/site/appeal.asp?id=617).