Right now, that system is warning about the rising possibility of famine in Somalia. And for the first time since the 1980s, the U.S. government, faced with this kind of disaster, has done nothing and apparently plans to continue doing nothing.

In Somalia, back-to-back droughts that began last year have killed more than 1 million livestock. Somalis—most of whom are goat, sheep, and camel herders—can’t expect help from their government, which is corrupt and devotes most of its small budget to fighting al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s Somali affiliate. The terrorist group controls a third of the country, including land along rivers, where it has allowed major irrigation projects to fall into disrepair. Throughout Somalia, international assistance is newly scarce or nonexistent. Half a million children now have severe acute malnutrition, the last stage of hunger before death, when organs start failing and irreversible brain damage typically occurs. And Somalia’s emergency-management agency predicts that, thanks in large part to the Super El Niño, the coming months may bring the worst flash floods the country has seen this century. Floodwaters could drown crops and animals, and make it much harder for the humanitarian workers who remain in Somalia to reach the tens of thousands of people living in displacement camps, some of whom would likely begin starving to death.