She left her village with her remaining six children, making the long journey on the Jubba River to one of a clutch of makeshift settlements on the outskirts of Kismayo, the capital of Somalia's Jubaland state.

But there was no food there either.

Three straight seasons of failed rains have doubled Somalia's malnutrition rate and Maryam is among more than 300,000 Somalis forced to leave their homes since January alone.

Several international organisations have stopped operations in the Kismayo camp -- in large part due to aid cuts ordered by US President Donald Trump last year.

"We are hungry. We need care and help," said Maryam, 46, whose last name is being withheld by AFP for security reasons.

She spoke in front of her shelter -- scraps of tarpaulin stretched over branches.

Haunted by the memory of her dead children's swollen bellies, she will not return to her village, which is under the control of the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab.

They have started seizing the limited food supplies available.

But the camp is hardly better. In March alone, five children died of malnutrition, its manager says.

- Animal carcasses -

Since its state collapsed in the early 1990s, Somalia has endured near-constant civil war, Islamist insurgencies, floods and droughts.

Famine has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

The war-torn country ranks among the world's most vulnerable to climate change, which scientists say is leading to more frequent and more intense incidences of extreme weather like droughts and floods.

Africa, which contributes the least to global warming, bears the brunt.

The recent cuts in foreign aid have not helped.

They have had "a huge impact on our work," said Mohamud Mohamed Hassan, Somalia director for NGO Save the Children.

More than 200 health centres and 400 schools have closed since last year.

Near the Kismayo camp, the carcasses of cattle, donkeys and goats litter the roadside.

Farmers, whose herds and crops have been decimated, describe one of the worst droughts ever recorded in a country where a third already lacked regular meals.

Even if the forthcoming rainy season is normal, it will take months for affected populations to recover.

"We cannot afford to actually address all the needs of these people," said Ali Adan Ali, a Jubaland official managing the displaced.

- 'Toxic cocktail' -

At a mobile health clinic supported by Save the Children -- the only one still operating for multiple camps in the area around Kismayo -- a woman named Khadija tried to feed a high-calorie solution to her severely malnourished one-year-old daughter.

The child writhed in her arms.

She came to the camp after last year's drought killed off her livestock but here, too, "we have nothing to eat", the 45-year-old said.

A hospital in Kismayo is the only facility in the region capable of treating the most severe cases of malnutrition.

But it is turning patients away for lack of space and staff.

Every bed is occupied by dozens of starving babies, some on ventilators with intravenous drips in their fragile arms.

Cases have trebled since last year and things are only getting worse.

The war in the Middle East has increased fuel prices, affecting food and water supplies.

Those in the camp seek work in construction or cleaning jobs in Kismayo or sell firewood but the options are limited.

Meanwhile, the United Nations' humanitarian arm has had to steadily reduce its Somalia programme from $2.6 billion in 2023 to $852 million this year, especially since Washington slashed its donations.

So far, only 13 percent of this year's target has been raised.

"It's a toxic cocktail of factors... Things are really, really desperate," Tom Fletcher, head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AFP in an interview last week.

"Often we're having to choose which lives to save and which lives not to save."