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A group of women and children refugees from Ethiopia camp outside a village near Boroma, the capital of Awdal region, on March 30. Many of them have lost their livestock in the drought and walked for a month to come to Somaliland in search of help. They have been staying in the open for the past two weeks, with no shelter and very little food. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The UN is now mobilizing resources so that its agencies, such as UNICEF, can provide lifesaving assistance to some 1.7 million people affected by drought in northern Somalia. Among them, 385,000 are in need of immediate assistance, while another 1.3 million are on the brink of slipping further into hunger and destitution if rains continue to fail and aid is too slow to come.

Before Li left Hawa and the rest of the women and children, she was caught up with a little girl, Raaho Osman Ahmed. She told the UNICEF workers that she was carried by a donkey when her family made the journey to Somaliland. "We didn't have enough food back home, so we left," said the bright-eyed four-year-old. "I had a lot of friends back home," she went on saying. "Mohamed…Aya…Omar…Fatuma… We always play together. I want to go home."