CARE International is the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) main partner in providing food and water to Somali refugees living in Kenya’s northern province. People have been living in this desolate and arid region for over 15 years, in a network of refugee camps managed by UNHCR. Hagadera, Ifo, and Dagahale Camps house over 160,000 people, mostly from neighboring Somalia. The three camps sprawl across 50 sq kilometers, a 4-hour drive from the nearest town Garissa.

Abdee Nure Mohammed, 40, stands beside his recently deceased cow. The prolonged drought and failing rains in the Northeastern region of Kenya has killed many livestock, the primary source of nutrition and income for Somali nomads.

Abdee Nure Mohammed's family has lived beside the Dagahale Camp outside of Dadaab, Kenya, for 7 years. Like many Somalis in Dadaab since 1991, Abdee is raising a new generationof his family in a UNHCR-sponsored refugee camp.

The landscape has always been harsh, the seasons shifting from heavy rains to parched earth, but the last few years have been particularly unforgiving. Goats, cattle and even camels are suffering, leaving the Somali  population without water, food, or their most valuable possession - livestock.

Nomads bring their camel to the Care-sponsored well in Kumahumato, which means, "that which supports cattle" in Somali. The community now struggles to keep their cattle alive due to the prolonged drought and failed rains in the region.

Batula Sheikh, 104 years old, is a Somali nomad living outside of the Dagahale Refugee Camp.

Dehydrated and dying cattle stand in the shade just 100 metres from a Care-sponsored well (Borehole 2). Somali refugees are forced to travel long distances in search of water for their livestock, due to prolonged drought and failing rainy seasons in the region.

During periods of extreme drought, which now occur almost every dry season from December to April, the only sources of food and water in Northeastern Kenya and Southern Somalia are from organizations such as CARE International and the World Food Programme.

A Somali girl walks past a dead goat near her home on the outskirts of the Dagahale Refugee Camp. So many livestock died during this drought that the community was not prepared to dispose of the carcasses properly.

Somali refugees receive bi-monthly food rations at the Dagahale Refugee Camp. Care and UNHCR provide 2,100 kilo-calories per person, per day, to over 30,000 refugees.

The unforgiving landscape of Sabuli, a nomadic Somali community outside the Dagahale Refugee Camp. The North Eastern regions of the country are experiencing drought and famine due to repeated failing rains, and cattle are the first to go for these fragile communities.

Somali nomadic housing structure on the outskirts of the Dagahale Refugee Camp. The North Eastern province of the country has been greatly affected by prolonged drought and repeated failing rains.