Heavily protected on account of the continuing civil strife in Somalia, this convoy is on a humanitarian mission, delivering badly needed seeds provided by FAO to villagers whose homes, fields and food stores have been under water for months. The convoy is led by Mohamoud Mohamoud, FAO's resident agronomist in the Lower Shabelle region, south of Mogadishu, whose main job is to assess the needs of the flood victims. Eventually the whole population of Wagade village turns out to welcome the truck.
Elders watch in dignified silence as the bags of seed are unloaded.
Small children, many with distended stomachs indicating the onset of malnutrition, tumble in the dust. Our fields have been flooded for many months. There is nothing growing there but weeds now. We have no money to hire tractors to clear the land. We have only bananas to eat.