Why Africa is facing its worst hunger crisis yet

STORY: Africa is facing a food crisis that is bigger and more complex than it has ever seen before.

That's according to diplomats and aid workers... who say the situation has worsened in the past year.

Conflict and climate change are the main culprits.

Nadifa Abdi Isak had to bring her malnourished daughters to a hospital in Mogadishu.

She and her family set off on foot to the capital... in hopes of escaping the drought that ravaged their town. The journey took 12 days.

She says three of her children were anemic and needed blood transfusions.

A nurse told her 42 other children had already been checked into the emergency unit that day from hunger.

There were 57 the day before that.

Half a million children's lives are at risk from a looming famine in Somalia, according to the UN -- more than anywhere else in the world.

It also says one in five Africans -- a record 278 million people -- were already facing hunger in 2021...

But warns the peak of the hunger crisis hasn't been seen yet.

East Africa has missed four consecutive rainy seasons - the worst drought in decades.

While on the other side of the continent - West Africa has been hit by flooding - after historic rainfall.

Heavy debt burdens following the COVID-19 pandemic continue to affect livelihoods - while rising prices and the war in Ukraine have made things worse.

Regional director of UNICEF - Rania Dagash.

“The fundamental issue in Somalia and in the Horn at the moment is a climate-induced crisis, right, it’s drought, but where the effects of the Ukraine crisis come in is that the food prices and fuel prices and others are hiked up to a point where we need more resources to secure what we would have secured before, we need a lot more.”

Conflicts are also worsening across the continent.

It's long been a driver of hunger - forcing people from their homes, livelihoods and farms - while making it dangerous to deliver assistance.

The number of displaced people in Africa has tripled over the past decade to a record 36 million in 2022, according to the U.N.

That represents almost half the displaced people in the world.