Somalia on the brink of another brutal famine, with children bearing the brunt

It's morning at a hospital in Dolow, Somalia. 

Inside the stabilization centre, a ward where malnourished children are given specialized treatment, there are no free beds. 

Mothers sit vigil over their babies. They fan the sleeping with scarves, rearrange the delicate limbs of the fitful and urge the most alert to take sips of formula.

(Lily Martin/CBC)

At the bedside of one-year-old Miida, Dr. Abdulaziz Osman gingerly lifts her frail arm, feeling for a pulse. She's suffering, like so many other children here, from severe acute malnutrition.

(Lily Martin/CBC)

It's her third time here, but return visits are not an uncommon occurrence, the doctor says.

(Lily Martin/CBC)

Her mother, Fadumo, lifts a cup of formula to Miida's lips, willing her to drink, but she rejects it with the little energy she has in her body. The doctor will have to make a decision today about whether the child will need to be put on a feeding tube.

While much of the world's eyes have been focused elsewhere this year, Somalia has slipped deeper into crisis. A famine is knocking.

(Lily Martin/CBC)

The country is in the midst of its fifth failed rainy season, resulting in the worst drought it has seen in nearly half a century. It has decimated the crops and farm animals so many Somalis rely on for their livelihoods. 

Other countries in the Horn of Africa have also been hard hit by drought in recent years, but none seem to be charting quite as catastrophic a course as Somalia, where the extreme weather brought by climate change is further compounded by conflict.

(Lily Martin/CBC)