A painfully thin baby is weighed at a feeding centre in Modgadishu. Somalia's capital has been flooded with families who've been driven out of the south because of famine. This disaster has already killed tens of thousands of people—half of them children under the age of five.

UNICEF and its partners are rushing aid to those in desperate need, but hundreds of thousands of lives hang in the balance.

Rozanne Chorlton, UNICEF Somalia Country Representative, said: "We are seeing now that the proportion of malnourished children who are severely malnourished is already at 50 percent this is an extremely worrying proportion because normally that would be around 5 or 10 per cent so it means that 50 per cent of malnourished children are at nine times greater risk of death than children who are healthy."

UNICEF has set up feeding centers on Somalia's borders with Ethiopia and Kenya to help the hundreds of thousands who are leaving the country.

This centre in Doolow is a haven for families who've made the long and dangerous journey from the south. Some are in very poor health.

Erin McClowskey, UNICEF nutrition specialist, said: "We have some that are in an OK state because they have only come from about 50 kilometres away, but some who have come from further, the Baye and Baiboa areas are very weak, they are very thin and some of them have a lot of illnesses."

UNICEF and its partners provide three meals a day. It's a lifeline for those who have nothing left. Habiba Isack said: "It took me nine days to get here from Wajid. On the way I was very hungry, we no money to buy food. My husband sent me here alone, so I had to make the journey alone, carrying my children. I thought I'd die from hunger."

UNICEF support has reached these families…but much more is needed. UNICEF estimates a million and a quarter children are in dire need of life saving support in southern Somalia and the entire region could be engulfed by famine in the coming weeks.

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