Survival fears rise amid severe drought

Emaciated cattle belonging to the Maasai pastoralist community walking in a dried river bed towards watering points, near Magadi township of Kajiado, Kenya. The region has been badly affected by a worsening drought due to the failed rainy season. — Reuters

IN drought-hit northeastern Kenya, villa­gers have been forced to drag their dead livestock to distant fields for burning to keep the stench of death and scavenging hyenas away from their homes.

Mandera county along Kenya’s borders with Ethiopia and Somalia has seen no rain since May and is now on the point of a full-blown water emergency.