Many animals continue to die for lack of water and grazing pasture. Their value has fallen by a half even though food prices have doubled and in some cases quintupled over the last year Photograph: Nick Danziger/Nick Danziger/Oxfam
For some the search is not only for grazing pasture, food and water: Mahmoud’s expedition is to secure a second wife: “In rural areas a first wife is only too happy to have another woman share the burdens of baby rearing, cooking and all the household chores, unlike urban women who only see a second wife as a rival who will cut the purse in half.” Photograph: Nick Danziger/Nick Danziger/Oxfam
These women have left their village in search of food and water. Almost all the children here are either malnourished or severely malnourished. The only supply of food or water they have found has been distributed by a local NGO. They would have once relied on milk as a substitute for food, but those animals that haven’t already perished produce only a fraction of what they would do if healthy Photograph: Nick Danziger/nick
Two-year-old Halima Gaz with her grandfather and carer Ali. Halima has been severely brain-damaged since she fell ill when she was 15 months old. She had started walking and was developing normally, but then got a fever, she wasn’t treated with conventional medicine and because of poor health awareness they didn’t know to cool her down and as a result suffered brain damage Photograph: Nick Danziger/nick
A severe drought, together with food prices rising daily, has left millions in Ethiopia in need of emergency food assistance with thousands of children requiring therapeutic feeding, but remote and vulnerable villages such as this one in the Afar region are receiving only minimal food assistance Photograph: Nick Danziger/nick
Valerie Browning is an Australian nurse who lives and works with the Afar. She and her husband Ishmael Al Garod founded NGO the Afar Pastoralists Development Association (APDA) six years ago. APDA is partly funded by Oxfam. Afars affectionately call her Maalika (meaning queen or angel) and she has dedicated the last 20 years of her life to the Afar people Photograph: Nick Danziger/nick
Unda Awka had been slipping in and out of consciousness through lack of food. Maalika, Australian nurse Valerie Browning, says: “She probably had two days to live – it’s simply a food problem – she needs to eat.” Maalika was able to give her two cups of baby food – enough to give her enough energy to sit up and regain consciousness Photograph: Nick Danziger/nick
Maryan Ali with her her malnourished children: Hussein, 6, Abulahi, 1, Suleyman, 3, and Mohammed, 5. There were once 30 households in this remote village close to the border with Djibouti, but everyone left in search of grazing pasture. Most couldn’t find any. They now live on food aid, but only have 15 days food left and worry about when they will get more Photograph: Nick Danziger/Nick Danziger
Fatima Lafatou with her two-year-old daughter Dorro Mohammed. Dorro was fit and healthy, and was walking before she became ill with an infection and chickenpox. Valerie Browning said about Dorro Mohammed’s condition: “She [Dorro] was treated for the infection with antibiotic syrup, but they had no food, and you cannot take repeated doses of antibiotic syrup without food. I think it has reduced her immunity and now she is seriously ill.” Photograph: Nick Danziger/Nick Danziger
Dhabo with her five-year-old son Hussein inside her empty shop. “I had to close the shop 6 months ago because food prices have risen so much... These people rely on their animals for money, but one goat is now worth less than a pair of flip-flops. I cannot sell things for enough to even make the capital back, let alone make a profit. I cannot even make enough profit to buy a biscuit for my children.” Photograph: Nick Danziger/Nick Danziger
The elderly, toddlers, the sick and disabled, mothers and wives in labour who are too weak to give birth, will be the first to die. Health centres are few are far between villages and offer only the most basic medicines. This man is looked after by relatives who also do not have enough food and water to feed themselves Photograph: Nick Danziger/Nick Danziger
