Somalia is facing its worst drought in 40 years

Millions of people are facing severe hunger as a result of the worst drought in 40 years in the Horn of Africa. For 8 days, I traveled through the country for Dutch and international media and what we witnessed was heartbreaking and harrowing. People have lost everything because of the drought, children die because of malnutrition.

As the situation deteriorates, aid agencies fear that a focus on the Ukraine crisis is likely to overwhelm the agenda and donors at a critical time for the East African country of Somalia in particular. According to a statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, only 3.2 percent ($47.1m) of the required funding ($1.5bn) for its humanitarian response plan has been received so far.

To read some of the stories I worked on, click on the links below:

• The Guardian: ‘There is not enough food. The situation is dire’: Somalia’s drought crisis

• Trouw (longread in Dutch): In Somalië voltrekt zich stilletjes een hongersnood, maar ‘Oekraïne domineert de agenda’

• Der Spiegel: With the World's Attention on Ukraine, Suffering Is Rising Elsewhere

• Der Spiegel (pictures): Dürre und Hungersnot in Somalia: Nie wieder – hieß es vor zehn Jahren

• NPO Radio 1 (Met Het Oog Op Morgen): Hongersnood dreigt voor miljoenen mensen in Hoorn van Afrika

• VICE World News: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Is Putting Millions of Lives at Risk in Somalia

• El País: Somalia se quiebra por la sequía histórica y la invasión rusa de Ucrania

• NPO Radio 1 (Humberto): Droogte in Hoorn van Afrika, 500.000 Somaliërs ontheemd

• Al Jazeera English: Drought in Somalia worsened by funding gap, Ukraine war

• De Morgen: De vergeten hongersnood in Somalië. ‘Door de droogte zijn we alles kwijtgeraakt’

• The New York Times: how the ongoing drought is affecting kids in Somalia

• Op1 interview: drought in East Africa

• Libération: Famine en Somalie : «Les gens ont tout perdu»

• El País: Tres adolescentes alertan al mundo desde el campo de refugiados climáticos más grande de Somalia

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Trouw published a four page story I wrote about the drought in Somalia.

Dutch comedian Dolf Jansen showed some of my pictures in Dutch talkshow Khalid & Sophie.

New work: reporting on the Tigray conflict for The Telegraph

Fleeing the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, tens of thousands of people walked days to get to neighboring Sudan, where they are staying in crowded refugee settlements. On assignment for British newspaper The Telegraph, I traveled with Africa correspondents Saskia Houttuin and Will Brown to eastern Sudan, where we were some of the first journalists to talk to refugees.

The Tigrayans told us horrifying stories, about indiscriminate bombings, machete attacks, decapitations and executions. But it’s hard to check if their stories are true, as in Tigray, the electricity and communication services have been cut off for weeks. On top of that, journalists are not allowed to enter the region to do their work independently. And so the only way to get an idea of what might have happened in Northern Ethiopia, is to talk to the many refugees that we found in the camps.

To read some of the stories that Will and Saskia wrote for their newspapers, click through the screenshots below. To read the story I wrote for Trouw’s De Verdieping segment, click here. To hear the radio interview I did for ‘Met Het Oog Op Morgen’, in conversation with Wilfried de Jong, click here. To hear the conversation I had in the ‘NOS Radio 1 Journaal’ with Jurgen van den Berg, together with Africa correspondent Bram Vermeulen, click play on the video underneath the newspaper clippings (or click here). To listen to NOS podcast ‘De Dag’ about the situation in the Sudanese camps, click play on the player below.

In addition to the work I did for The Telegraph, NOS and Trouw, I also worked for NGOs, who are working on the ground to help the Ethiopian refugees. To see some of the work I did for World Food Programme (WFP), click here. The photos I took for Save The Children can be seen here. To see the video interviews and pictures I created for Dutch refugee NGO Stichting Vluchteling, click here. And to see the pictures I took for ZOA, click here.