Escaping drought, fighting and famine, tens of thousands of Somalis, most of them children, continue to arrive in camps for the displaced in the capital, Mogadishu. Over 100 days have passed since the UN declared famine zones within the country, but children there are still suffering from severe malnutrition.

After travelling for days without food or water, these malnourished children finally arrived at the refuge camps, where they are seeking a glimer of hope.

Parents have lined up to get their children checked at a health center run by aid agencies. But the results are not optimistic.

Hasan Abdi Mohamed, a father of six has brought in his youngest child, whose body has begun to swell due to severe acute malnutrition.

Hasan Abdi Mohamed, Displaced Somali said "He has a constant fever, with blisters on his skin - he’s been sick for three months, but it is only this month that his body became swollen."

After examination, these children are usually given medical treatment and nourishing food to help them recover.

But the risk remains high. Severely malnourished children are nine times more likely to die from infectious diseases such as measles, cholera and malaria.

Since the famine was declared by the UN in July, over a hundred thousand malnourished children had been admitted to UN-supported health centers as of late September.

Mohamed Abdi, health worker said "Malnutrition has become very widespread - if you receive 5 children, 4 will be malnourished…. The rate of malnutrition in Mogadishu is increasing - in some areas most of the children are malnourished."

One in six children in Somalia dies from hunger and disease before their fifth birthday.

Over the past year, the eastern Horn of Africa has experienced two consecutive poor rainy seasons, resulting in one of the driest years in decades in many pastoral zones.

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