Hassan said soldiers sometimes shared their food with the children in her family, but the relief was limited. She and the other adults began skipping meals, sometimes for two days straight, so the children could eat. Tree leaves boiled in water and sprinkled with spices became a part of their diet.
“We tried to avoid picking the leaves from poisonous trees,” she said. “We only used the mango, lemon and guava leaves. The children would eat them. They couldn’t say no because they were so hungry.”
I actually read it that way – that is, I thought that it was just a poorly-written headline and that it was saying that there were refugees leaving the country due to the famine.
As a person who’s first language isn’t English I can totally see how you read it that way even if I personally didn’t.