In the Land of Mirages

The village of Beyer Khano sits in a stretch of Somalia that the rain forgot. Osman is twenty-seven. He looks fifty. He stands at the edge of what used to be his home and watches the wind move dust where the Shabelle River should be. The baobab tree that once shaded the whole village has gone skeletal, its branches bare against a white sky. Ten people are left here. Maybe twelve. Everyone else die...