DADAAB, Kenya — Only 10 days ago, Minhaj Gedi Farah was too weak to cry and his skin crumpled liked thin leather under the pressure of his mother’s hands. Now doctors say the severely malnourished 7-month-old appears out of danger of joining the more than 29,000 children who already have died in the famine.
It’s a rare success story amid unimaginable misery for parents at the world’s largest refugee camp.
But Minhaj now weighs more than 8 pounds, well below what he should for his age, but a major improvement from 7 pounds when he first arrived.
“He is in stable condition, and he is doing well,” said Dr. John Kiogora of the International Rescue Committee, who has been treating the infant since his arrival in late July.
Startling photographs of Minhaj’s twiglike arms and hollow cheeks made him the frail face of the worst famine in 60 years. On Saturday, though, the wide-eyed baby looked around the ward inquisitively and became captivated with a journalist who was taking his picture.
It’s a miracle for his mother, and a testament to how hard health care workers are trying to save lives.
“He has no problem compared to the past days,” said his mother, Asiah Dagane, who smiles broadly and frequently plants kisses on the baby’s cheeks. “Now he sleeps the bulk of the night. When he wakes up, he is hungry and wants milk.”
Most parents have been far less fortunate: New arrivals at Dadaab have described losing as many as four children to starvation and disease along the journey by foot from Somalia. Others made unthinkable decisions about which children to take and which to leave for dead under trees so that the entire family did not perish.
Muhumed Surow had to bury his 1-year-old daughter, Liin, who died from malnourishment overnight after the family reached this refugee camp too late to save her.
The 27-year-old father sat Saturday about 10 yards from the grave. Dozens of refugees attended the funeral at the edge of a camp and tried to console him as Surow sobbed in a squatting position.
His wife’s mourning is tinged with hope after she gave birth to a baby boy, Hamdi, two days before the girl died.
“I’m pained and saddened by the loss of my daughter. I can’t do anything about it. But I pray to God to give me a good replacement that lives a long life,” said the 24-year-old mother, Hamaro Mohamed.
