Man City and Bayern stay perfect in Women's Champions League. Barcelona and Arsenal win big

Manchester City and Bayern Munich stayed perfect in the Women’s Champions League halfway through the group stage on Tuesday, while two-time defending champion Barcelona and Arsenal recorded big wins.

City leads Group D with nine points after the English league leader beat Hammarby 2-0 at home. Barcelona is second, trailing by three points, followed by Hammarby on three and St. Pölten without a point.

Barcelona earlier thrashed St. Pölten 7-0. Claudia Pina led the demolition with two goals. It followed another massive win for Barcelona, 9-0 over Hammarby in the previous round.

Arsenal is recovering from a poor start to the season, scoring four goals in the second straight game in the competition as it won 4-0 at Juventus.

The Gunners are second in Group C with six points, three behind leader Bayern, which eased past pointless newcomer Vålerenga 3-0. Juventus has three points.

It took Barcelona 32 minutes to break the deadlock

Ona Batlle crossed from the left for Ewa Pajor to net the opener from close range. Then another four goals came within seven minutes as Barcelona was rewarded for its dominance.

Francisca Nazareth scored in the 38th minute, slotting home a loose ball. Aitana Bonmatí made it 3-0 on a rebound after Carina Schlüter parried a fierce drive by Vicky Lopez.

Keira Walsh’s clinical finish from outside the area and Pina’s volley for her first made it 5-0 at halftime.

Pina added her second from the spot after the interval before Caroline Graham Hansen finished it off.

Led by interim head coach Renée Slegers, Arsenal continues to recover from its 5-2 loss to Bayern in the opening round and earlier poor form in its domestic league.

Boosted by a 5-0 victory over Brighton in the Women’s Super League on Friday, the Gunners showed the same ruthlessness in Europe.

Frida Maanum put Arsenal ahead late in the first half against Juve, a team which dominates the Italian league. Late goals from two substitutes, Stina Blackstenius and Mariona Caldentey, put the result beyond doubt before Caitlin Foord finished off the emphatic win.

Pernille Harder found the back of the net again for Bayern. The Denmark veteran headed in the opener early in the game for her fifth goal of the campaign to remain the competition’s top scorer this season.

Many more goals looked inevitable but only two came despite numerous chances.

Giulia Gwinn doubled the advantage from the spot in the 17th minute, sending goalkeeper Tove Enblom the wrong way.

Sarah Zadrazil added the third with a looping shot in second-half stoppage time.

Without injured star signing Vivianne Miedema, City was held at bay by the visitors in the first half.

The 28-year-old Netherlands forward had another operation on her troublesome left knee last month, and it’s not clear when she might be able to return.

The first goal came soon after the interval from midfielder Laura Blindkilde Brown, who joined City from Aston Villa in January.

Forward Aoba Fujino made it 2-0 with a header 10 minutes from time.

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Manchester City's Khadija Shaw, center, and Hammaby IF's Eva Nystrom, left, challenge for the ball during the women's Champions League soccer match between Manchester City FC and Hammarby IF in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)

Manchester City's Khadija Shaw, center, is fouled by Hammaby IF's Emilie Joramo, left. and Eva Nystrom, right, during the women's Champions League soccer match between Manchester City FC and Hammarby IF in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)

Bayern's Sarah Zadrazil, background right, smiles after scoring her side's third goal during the women's Champions League group C soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and Valerenga at the FC Bayern Campus in Munich, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Bayern's Julia Zigotti Olme jumps for the ball with Valerenga's Linn Vickius, background, during the women's Champions League group C soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and Valerenga at the FC Bayern Campus in Munich, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Bayern's Pernille Harder scores the opening goal past Valerenga goalkeeper Tove Enblom during the women's Champions League group C soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and Valerenga at the FC Bayern Campus in Munich, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Arsenal's Stina Blackstenius, left, celebrates scoring her side's second goal during the women's Champions League soccer match between Juventus and Arsenal at the Vittorio Pozzo La Marmora Stadium in Biella, Italy, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Arsenal's Stina Blackstenius scores her side's second goal during the women's Champions League soccer match between Juventus and Arsenal at the Vittorio Pozzo La Marmora Stadium in Biella, Italy, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Arsenal's Frida Leonhardsen Maanum celebrates after scoring during the women's Champions League soccer match between Juventus and Arsenal at the Vittorio Pozzo La Marmora Stadium in Biella, Italy, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Arsenal's Frida Leonhardsen Maanum celebrates after scoring during the women's Champions League soccer match between Juventus and Arsenal at the Vittorio Pozzo La Marmora Stadium in Biella, Italy, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers sits on the bench ahead of the women's Champions League soccer match between Juventus and Arsenal at the Vittorio Pozzo La Marmora Stadium in Biella, Italy, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Arsenal's Stina Blackstenius scores her side's second goal during the women's Champions League soccer match between Juventus and Arsenal at the Vittorio Pozzo La Marmora Stadium in Biella, Italy, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Arsenal's Frida Leonhardsen Maanum, right, and Juventus' Eva Schatzer vie for the ball during the women's Champions League soccer match between Juventus and Arsenal at the Vittorio Pozzo La Marmora Stadium in Biella, Italy, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Bayern's Sarah Zadrazil, second left, is congratulated by teammate Glodis Viggosdottir after scoring her side's third goal during the women's Champions League group C soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and Valerenga at the FC Bayern Campus in Munich, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Manchester City's Mary Fowler, right, and Hammaby IF's Stina Lennartsson, left, challenge for the ball during the women's Champions League soccer match between Manchester City FC and Hammarby IF in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)

Arsenal's Stina Blackstenius celebrates scoring her side's second goal during the women's Champions League soccer match between Juventus and Arsenal at the Vittorio Pozzo La Marmora Stadium in Biella, Italy, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Manchester City's Aoba Fujino, left, celebrates after scoring her side's second goal during the women's Champions League soccer match between Manchester City FC and Hammarby IF in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)

Manchester City's Laura Blindkilde, center, celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the women's Champions League soccer match between Manchester City FC and Hammarby IF in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)

Bayern's Pernille Harder, right, scores the opening goall during the women's Champions League group C soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and Valerenga at the FC Bayern Campus in Munich, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Manchester City's Aoba Fujino, right, scores her side's second goal during the women's Champions League soccer match between Manchester City FC and Hammarby IF in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)

PUNTLAND, Somalia (AP) — Most of Abdi Ahmed Farah’s hundreds of goats have died. It has not rained steadily in this part of Somalia for three years, something the 70-year-old never thought possible.

He is in debt from buying water. The reservoir outside his tent is nearly empty. His family is down to one meal a day: rice with sugar and oil. The youngest of his 22 children was born three weeks ago and his wife produces only occasional drops of breast milk.

“I have considered abandoning my family because I cannot provide for them,” said Farah, sitting in front of dwindling food supplies, as if on guard.

Yet another drought is affecting millions of people across Somalia, one of the world's most vulnerable countries to climate shocks. Some rivers are dry. Crops have withered. Experts say the drought could be among the worst in Somali history.

The crisis is compounded by aid cuts, most dramatically by the Trump administration, and rising prices from the Iran war. Somalia buys most of its fuel from the Middle East, and 70% of its food is imported.

Production of staple crops of maize and sorghum in the October-December rainy season was the lowest on record in Somalia, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Food security experts warn that nearly a half-million children might face severe acute malnutrition, the harshest kind. That would be higher than the number of children requiring treatment for it during droughts in 2011 and 2022, according to UNICEF.

"2026 is the worst year on record for Somalia in terms of drought,” said Hameed Nuru, the U.N. World Food Program director for Somalia. “Children have started dying.”

The Somali government and the United Nations estimated in February that 6.5 million people face crisis levels of hunger, representing a third of the country’s population and a 25% increase since January.

The number of Somalis currently facing food insecurity stands at 6 million, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report released on Thursday. Although the figure is lower than the 6.5 million reported in February, it is higher than the projected 5.5 million indicated in the February report.

Aid agencies are trying to maximize resources and the Somali diaspora is sending money to help, but humanitarian workers warn it is not enough.

“This drought is not just another cycle of dry season. It’s a repeated climate shock with shrinking humanitarian support,” said Mohamed Assair, a manager with Save the Children in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region.

Farah once had 680 goats, but a lack of food and water as well as diseases exacerbated by drought have claimed all but 110 of them, barely clinging to life.

“There is no market for my goats because they are so thin. Previously we would trade them for rice, but now we can’t,” he said. Farah’s family has been at a site outside Usgure village for 10 days. Almost a dozen goat carcasses lie nearby.

In Usgure, home to 700 families, community leader Abshir Hirsi Ali said the local economy has collapsed because they rely on pastoralists like Farah. Shops have closed and food rations have run low.

A recent, brief shower brought puddles of dirty rainwater. “Some families were so desperate they drank it … now there is a high number of people with fever,” Ali said.

Save the Children occasionally brings free water to Usgure, but private water trucks have quadrupled their prices and the cost of a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of flour has increased by a third, to $40.

“I’m not only afraid for my family but the future of the whole village,” said Muhubo Tahir Omar, a 47-year-old mother of 11 children.

Omar, like other parents, had sold her goats to pay for school fees, “but when we didn’t pay, the teachers left.” Her last goat is now sick.

Decades of conflict in Somalia have displaced millions of people. The drought has displaced another 200,000 this year, the U.N estimates.

Some families flee across harsh landscapes with limited supplies.

“People are on the move … and when people move, people die,” said Kevin Mackey, the Somalia director for humanitarian group World Vision. He recently met people who had walked for nine days to get aid in Dollow in the south.

Around 80 families live in a displacement camp outside Shahda village in Puntland.

Shukri, a 20-year-old mother of four, usually can eke out one meal a day from handouts. Now there is nothing to eat and limited access to clean water.

“The children got diarrhea (from dirty water) and malnourishment worsened,” said Shukri, who gave only her first name. “I know a few people who have died.”

Many people head to Mogadishu, the capital, where food also remains scarce.

Fadumo, a 45-year-old mother of seven, moved there from Lower Shabelle, where livelihoods were already threatened by al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants.

“The water sources we depended on for farming, including the river, dried up,” Fadumo said. “Conflict made our situation even worse, forcing us to flee."

Drought ravaged Somalia in 2022 and an estimated 36,000 people died, according to the U.N. Now the kind of aid that was rushed to respond to such crises is shrinking.

“Unless there is a sudden and substantial response from donors, the outlook is deeply concerning. A drought of similar severity in 2022 received a response five times greater than what we are seeing,” said Antoine Grand, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Somalia.

Aid funding to Somalia dropped to $531 million in 2025 in large part because of aid cuts by the United States, which had been Somalia's top donor. In 2022, aid funding was nearly five times as much at $2.38 billion.

WFP said it intended to help 2 million people with food aid this year but has reached only 300,000 because of funding gaps.

A center at the hospital in Qardho, Puntland, treats children with severe acute malnutrition. But therapeutic milk is now rarely in stock, and nurses resort to homemade alternatives such as cow's milk, said director Shamis Abdirahman.

The center receives around 15 children a month, but they expect more as displaced people arrive.

One 4-year-old, Farhia, weighs a scant 7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds). Her eyes are sunken and her bones are prominent under her skin.

Her family fled to Qardho when all of their goats died, said her mother, Najma.

“I don’t know what to hope for, or see how we can get back to what we had,” she said.

Faruk reported from Mogadishu, Somalia.

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Abdi Ahmed Farah stands among the carcasses of his goats, that died of hunger in Usgure, Puntland, Somalia, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)

Abdi Ahmed Farah's wife, Absheera Ali, sits with her children outside their home in Usgure, Puntland, Somalia, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)

The carcass of a camel that died from hunger lies in an open field in Usgure, Puntland, Somalia, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)

Four-year-old Farhia, who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, looks through a window at a hospital in Qardho, Puntland, Somalia, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)

A mother looks at her daughter, who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, at a stabilization center in a hospital in Qardho, Puntland, Somalia, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)