Thousands of people face a serious shortage of food following a severe drought and insufficient rains in Somalia's central region of Mudug, a report says.

The areas worst affected by the drought are those bordering northeastern Kenya and southeastern Ethiopia. They include Towfiq, Eil Dhanane, Dhinowda and Afbarwaqo areas, Reuters reported.
The dry weather associated with insufficient precipitation have forced some families to migrate in search of food and grazing land for their cattle.
At least 5,000 families in 13 villages northeast and southeast of the regional capital of Galkayo, located 700 km (435 miles) north of Mogadishu are in dire need of food aid.
""I have seen with my own eyes goats and sheep and cattle dying; what livestock is left is so weak they cannot travel anywhere for water,"" an elder Abdullahi Mahamud Nur said.""They cannot be sold and they are useless for milk or meat.""
The UN's food agency, the World Food Program, is appealing for donors to provide tons of food in order to halt a humanitarian tragedy and stop more people from leaving their homes in hardest-hit areas.
At feeding centers an unusually high number of people are now turning up for assistance. In some villages in central Somalia men have left their families behind and headed for the city in search of food.
According to the United Nations, an estimated two million Somalis are in need of humanitarian assistance.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has reported that hundreds of civilians were injured in fighting in Somalia in recent months.
The Geneva-based humanitarian institution said that a total of 5,000 patients with war injuries, including 1,900 women and children, were admitted to Mogadishu's Keysaney and Medina hospitals from January through September.
Compared to last year, there has been a 25-percent increase in the total number of war casualties and a 72-percent hike in the number of war-wounded women and children admitted to hospitals.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Said Barre.
Over the past two decades, up to one million people have lost their lives in fighting between rival factions and due to famine and disease.
There are more than 1.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Somalia. Over 300,000 of the IDPs are sheltered in Mogadishu.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that most of the displaced live in poor and degrading conditions in makeshift sites in southern and central Somalia.
Photo: A child drinks water at a feeding center in drought-stricken Somalia. (File photo)
(Source: Press TV)
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