Harrowing choices for many in Somalia

NUURTO Ibrahim Mannur comes from a remote village called Barbaare (75km west of Baidoa town) in south-central Somalia.

In her early forties, she is a mother of nine and the head of her family. Her husband left them when they had lost their herd of cows and nobody knows his whereabouts. She decided to leave for Baidoa town following deterioration in the situation in her village due to the extreme drought affecting the region and, indeed, the whole Horn of Africa.

However, before leaving for Baidoa, she had to make a big decision: she could not take all of her nine children and she had to leave some of them behind. She decided to take three children, the strongest of whom would be able to endure the long walk to Baidoa.