Nearly a quarter million people in Somalia are facing starvation as a decade-long drought crisis worsens and global food prices reach record highs, according to agencies of the United Nations. Reports from various N.G.O.s say that current starvation levels have increased threefold from what was expected in April. In addition, approximately 7.1 million Somalis – nearly half of the population – face acute levels of food insecurity, and nearly 1.5 million children are at risk of acute malnutrition through the end of the year.

Somalia has just experienced its fourth consecutive failed rainy season, and meteorologists warn of another below-average rain season to come this year as the world’s climate becomes increasingly volatile. The drought has killed around 3 million livestock since mid-2021, U.N. agencies say, and UNICEF reports that the decline in meat and milk production has worsened malnutrition, especially among young children in pastoral areas dependent on local supply.

Simultaneously, world food prices are at a record high as Russia’s war on Ukraine destabilizes the market for staple grains and edible oils. Somali families are becoming increasingly unable to handle the soaring prices as consecutive seasons of poor production, livestock deaths, and imported food prices all reach record levels. In parts of the country, UNICEF says, food prices have risen by up to 160%.

At particular risk of famine is southern Somalia, where Al Jazeera says fighters from the al-Shabab armed group have posed a challenge to humanitarian access.

Children are among the vulnerable groups hit hardest by the lack of food. “This is a child crisis,” said Angela Kearney, UNICEF Somalia Representative. “It’s not only about water or nutrition, but also about children losing education, falling vulnerable to child protection issues and having poor health; all impacting their future.”

While U.N. agencies such as the World Food Programme (W.F.P.), the Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O.), UNICEF, and the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (O.C.H.A.) have stepped in to provide aid, their capacity has been limited by a lack of funds. According to UNICEF, humanitarian agencies have reached 2.8 million people in Somalia between January and April 2022 with drought assistance and famine prevention programmes, but recent assessments indicate that both the scale of aid being delivered and funding from the international community are insufficient to protect those most at risk.

“It’s a race against time to prevent famine and W.F.P. is scaling up as much as possible, prioritizing our limited resources to save those most at risk. But as these new figures show, there is an urgent need for more resources to meet this escalating hunger crisis,” said El-Khidir Daloum, the WFP Country Director in Somalia. “The lives of the most vulnerable are already at risk from malnutrition and hunger. We cannot wait for a declaration of famine to act.”

As of last month, the UN’s 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan is only 18% funded, and Somalia is competing with other global emergency hotspots for funding as insecurity spreads around the world. Funding for the U.N. humanitarian group may have substantially increased from the end of March to May, but this spike in funds was primarily due to the invasion of Ukraine and the publication of the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan.

According to U.N.O.C.H.A., the Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan will require $1.5 billion in funds, 19.2% of which it currently has, leaving the office in need of an additional $1.18 billion. The bureau cites 12 countries – the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Japan, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, and Turkey – and the European Commission as significant contributors to the Somalia Response Plan.

Taking a closer look at each country’s contributions, however, it is clear that achieving the necessary funds to address the crisis is quite plausible. For every listed country except Sweden, it would consume less than 1% of their national budget to donate the same amount to the Somalia Response Plan as they have already contributed to existing funds. The greatest donor, the United States – which has contributed 39.7% of the existing funds for the plan – would need to allocate just .0098% of its budget to fulfill its share of the plan.

While the Somalia plan has acquired only 19.2% of the $1.46 billion needed, the U.N.O.C.H.A. Ukraine Flash Appeal plan has garnered 70.1% of its $2.25 billion budget. A number of contributors, including the U.S. and E.U., have donated more than four times as much to this plan as to Somalia’s. Moreover, many of the individual donations to Ukraine could completely fund the Somalia plan on their own.

This is not to say that Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis is less important than Somalia’s. The cost-of-living crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine has particularly affected vulnerable countries; addressing the war will also help to address food insecurity in Somalia. However, it is clear that the world is allowing its pre-eminent focus on the Ukraine conflict to outstrip the responsibility it has to the war’s impacts on poorer nations. Wealthy nations shouldn’t necessarily re-allocate funds from Ukraine to Somalia, but the breadth of their contributions makes it clear that they can – and should! – invest more into responding to both crises. The United States – which I give particular focus to, as it is both the most significant contributor and the wealthiest nation – invests hundreds of billions in its military annually. Why not withdraw money from military interventionism and re-allocate it to humanitarian aid?

The world’s collective response to the Ukrainian conflict has highlighted its neglect toward African and Middle Eastern countries. We can agree that Russia’s violence is appalling; why is the sympathetic fervor we show Ukraine not given to Somalia, Southern Sudan, Syria, Iraq– any African or Middle Eastern nation where there are ongoing conflicts? A nation’s incentive to provide aid should not be influenced by the race of those who are suffering.

This is also an issue of fast versus slow violence, and of media coverage. It is difficult to neglect the civilians whose lives were spilled over Russian troops’ hands because the brutality of their deaths is immediately visible. Weapons of war kill people instantly, and the mainstream media has maintained consistent coverage of the violence. Starvation and malnutrition, however, are long-term and gradual; they don’t spark the same fight-or-flight response, and they don’t provide news outlets with snappy soundbites. This is a concept that has been primarily applied to climate change response – it is hard to move people to address the problem with systemic change because the deaths it threatens are not immediately obvious. It’s almost as though issues like the Somalian drought crisis are “out of sight, out of mind.”

All lives in danger should be treated equally, and human rights should apply everywhere. The international community must ensure that Somalians’ rights to food, water, and to an adequate standard of living are met. It is up to all nations, but the wealthiest in particular, to invest the necessary funding for humanitarian agencies to provide aid in Somalia.