The tears tumbled down 11-year-old Dahir's hunger-hollowed cheeks.
"I just want to survive this," he said quietly.
Seated beside the family's makeshift tent, on the dusty plain outside the city of Baidoa, his weary mother, Fatuma Omar, told him not to cry.
"Your tears will not bring your brother back. Everything will be fine," she said.
Fatuma's second son, 10-year-old Salat, died of starvation two weeks ago, shortly after the family reached Baidoa from their village, three days' walk away. His body is buried in the rocky earth a few metres from their new home - the grave already covered in litter and increasingly hard to spot as new arrivals set up camp around them.
"I cannot grieve for my son. There is no time. I need to find work and food to keep the others alive," Fatuma said, cradling her youngest daughter, nine-month-old Bille, and turning to look at six-year-old Mariam as she gave a rasping cough.
On the other side of the dirt road that loops to the south-east, towards the coast and Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, other displaced families told more grim stories of long treks across a drought-parched landscape in search of food.
