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It has not rained for almost a year in Hargududo in southeastern Ethiopia, where the bodies of goats, cows and donkeys are seen near the huts of nomadic villagers.
The worst drought in decades in the Horn of Africa region is leading some 20 million people to starvation, according to the UN.
An old way of life in the desert is being destroyed, as nomadic children are suffering from malnutrition and families are being destroyed.
April here should be one of the wettest months of the year, but the air in Hargududo is hot while the land is dusty and deserted.
Many of the animals owned by about 200 semi-nomadic families in the village have already been wiped out.
“Those who used to have 300 goats before the drought have only 50 or 60. While the others have not survived any,” 52-year-old villager Hussein Habil told AFP.
The same tragic story is being seen in large areas of southern Ethiopia and neighboring Kenya and Somalia.
Media attention in Ethiopia is focused on the humanitarian crisis and the conflict in the north, between government forces and the Tigray rebels.
In that region 9 million people are in urgent need of food.
In southern Ethiopia, the UN humanitarian office says 6.5 million people, or about 7% of the population, are being killed by drought.
The unexplained lack of rainfall has so far killed 1.5 million head of livestock, mostly in the Somali region, highlighting the alarming situation.
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