When the rain came to the city of Shashemene in the south of Ethiopia, it was already too late. The harvest season was over.

Because of the drought, food stocks are low. To respond to the growing famine, the NGO Doctors without Borders is carrying an emergency intervention.  In just 10 days, the NGO has treated more than 300 children suffering from severe malnutrition.

Some have already died, their bodies weakened by the lack of adequate food.
 
"There is almost nothing,” says Mieke Steenssens, a Field Coordinator for the NGO. “They almost don't have any food left in their homes. I heard from the patients that the next harvest will begin in four or five months so we are expecting more children and more problems."
 
Shumano lives in the village of Aga, about 20 kilometers away from the hospital. He came looking for food and medical help for his baby daughter and pregnant wife.
 
"I brought my child here even though my land is fertile,” Schumano says. “The rain arrived too late and there are no crops. I have four children waiting for me at home.”
 
"We don't have any food left at home,” Shumano’s wife says. “I don't know how I will feed my unborn child."
 
In the absence of long-term solution, food and water supplies keep dwindling in Ethiopia, putting yet more lives at stake.