DADAAB, Kenya (Reuters) - Somalia's famine refugees, weakened by months of drought, on Monday began Islam's punishing Ramadan fast amid the tents and shacks of the world's largest refugee camp.
"Because of the famine, we've been going for days without any food anyway," said 25-year-old Mohamed Dubow Saman, comforting his daughter outside their emergency shelter in Dadaab camp, just over Somalia's border in neighboring Kenya.
"That was a fast without reward. At least this fast is inspired by God," he said.
Sick people do not have to keep the fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. But most camp-dwellers, caught up in the severest drought to hit the Horn of Africa in decades, appeared determined to keep to their traditions.
As the sun sank below the horizon late on Sunday, bathing Dadaab's makeshift city in a deep orange hue, Saman scanned the sky for the first sight of the crescent moon, which would mark the start of the month-long fast.
"Because of the famine, we've been going for days without any food anyway," said 25-year-old Mohamed Dubow Saman, comforting his daughter outside their emergency shelter in Dadaab camp, just over Somalia's border in neighboring Kenya.
"That was a fast without reward. At least this fast is inspired by God," he said.
Sick people do not have to keep the fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. But most camp-dwellers, caught up in the severest drought to hit the Horn of Africa in decades, appeared determined to keep to their traditions.
As the sun sank below the horizon late on Sunday, bathing Dadaab's makeshift city in a deep orange hue, Saman scanned the sky for the first sight of the crescent moon, which would mark the start of the month-long fast.
