Four years ago, donor mobilization and a massive humanitarian scale-up by WFP and partners averted famine in Somalia. Now, as needs soar, funds dry up and drought's fallout pummels the Horn of Africa nation, the race is on to stop another hunger catastrophe
Standing on top of a towering anthill in the arid fields of northeastern Somalia, 10-year-old Farah and his mother, Safiya Maxamed, cover their faces from the sun, as they keep watch over their handful of goats feeding off a pile of thorny branches.
"I used to have 100 goats," says Maxamed. "The five you see are all that remain."
Dry water ponds, destroyed crops, animal carcasses and old pots filled with ash are part of the new landscape in Diilin, a village in the Puntland region. Livestock - historically the backbone of economic and cultural life here - has been wiped out by three failed rainy seasons.
