At one point in his life, Abdirahman Mohamed Ali had enough livestock to be considered rich.

Three consecutive failed rainy seasons have taken everything, and all his camels, goats and sheep are now bones on the plains of central Somalia.

“The climate doesn’t have mercy. I’ve been herding livestock for over seventy years and now I’ve lost everything,” he told the Telegraph from his new home in a makeshift tent by a dirt road on the edge of the capital, Mogadishu.

“In the past years, even while herding livestock as they withered away, I would keep going because I knew the rains would come eventually,” the 82-year-old says. “But now it no longer rains.

“When my body began thinning away slowly, was when I realised this way of life was no longer sustainable.

“My health has worsened and I saw all my livestock die,” Mr Ali says.

Somalia is facing its worst drought on record according to the United Nations, and famine is feared to be coming next to the east African nation.

The country faced another terrible drought four years ago, when international aid agencies spent billions trying to stave off starvation.

Yet families arriving at the same distribution points this year have often now found them closed, or empty.

The difference between this year and 2022 is huge international aid cuts, by America, but also by the UK and other European nations.

Somalia’s catastrophic drought risks becoming one of the first major humanitarian crises of the “post-aid era”, the charity Mercy Corps said earlier this month.

The international plan to stave off disaster was only 14 per cent funded by last month. Aid funding in 2022 was $2.4bn (£1.8bn), but by last year had fallen four-fifths to $0.5bn (£0.4bn), in large part because of cuts by the US, which had been the country’s largest donor.

The World Food Programme had aimed to feed two million people this year, but has so far only been able to afford to reach 300,000.

Added to the drought and the aid cuts are the effects of the Iran War, which have sent the costs of fuel, food and fertiliser soaring because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Food prices have risen by more than 30 per cent and fuel costs in the capital have trebled, putting necessities out of reach for millions of people.

“The fallout from the Middle East conflict is compounding an already devastating crisis,” said Daud Jiran, Somalia director at Mercy Corps, earlier this month.

“Rising fuel prices are driving up the cost of food, water, and transport at the very moment families can least absorb another shock. In some of the hardest-hit drought areas, a single jerrycan of water now costs up to $1.50 (£1.10), compared with just a few cents a year ago,” he said.

Abdullahi Nur Osman, who heads a local charity called the Hormuud Salaam Foundation, has worked on relief efforts in Somalia for the past 15 years.

He said: “The current drought taking place is much more dangerous than any of the previous droughts, because this time around it has impacted the entire country compared to previous droughts that had only impacted particular regions.

“That’s why the situation is so dire.”

United Nations experts earlier this month estimated two million Somalis are on the threshold of famine, with another four million short of food or forced into selling possessions to eat.

As the drought has taken hold, half a million Somalis, including Mr Ali, have left their homes.

Mr Osman said: “Support in the form of aid is far less compared to the previous drought in 2022, because at that time there was large-scale support to help alleviate the suffering of those impacted by the drought.

“But at the moment, there isn’t any significant international support, aside from the local organisations.”

He said the aid cuts had also meant that 900 medical centres had closed. Somalia’s Disaster Management Agency (SODMA), which oversees the distribution of aid for the internationally recognised government based in Mogadishu, did not respond to questions.

Somalia is also a fragile state, plagued by political fragmentation and conflict with the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab movement.

The Somali government has strengthened its grip on the capital, which is comparatively secure and booming, but swathes of territory elsewhere are a battleground and the group has made significant rural gains in the past year.

International aid agencies have long struggled to access territory controlled by al-Shabaab and have often focussed their efforts only on government-held areas.

Traders also expected a recent resurgence in piracy along Somalia’s 2,000 mile coast to add to rising costs. Pirates hijacked at least three vessels in late April.

“When these attacks happen in the Gulf of Aden, it puts a lot of pressure on our seaports because many [international traders] will be hesitant to do business with Somali ports or voyage through Somali waters because of fear of pirates,” said a livestock trader in the port of Bosaso.

All this means Mr Ali has little optimism that he will be able to return to his old life. “I have survived many droughts but this is something else,” he said.

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