There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

Sentence: Many have had to leave their homes behind, with more than 1.3 million people being displaced due to the drought.

Passage: Somalia has been dealing with an enormous humanitarian catastrophe, driven by the longest and most severe drought the country has experienced in at least 40 years. ___(1)___. Five consecutive rainy seasons have failed, causing more than 8 million people - almost half of the country’s population - to experience acute food insecurity. ___(2)___. More than 43,000 people are believed to have lost their lives, with half of the lives lost likely being children under five. The damage the drought has caused is far-reaching. ___(3)___. Farmers have lost all their agricultural income, while pastoralists have lost more than 3 million livestock, impoverishing entire communities, and leaving them on the brink of famine. ___(4)___. Some, like the pastoralists, may never be able to go back as their livelihoods have been irreversibly wiped out.

A useful strategy for determining where the given sentence best fits is to look for places where the flow of ideas feels awkward or disconnected. When we examine the sentences around Blank 1, we see that they are well-linked, moving smoothly from the broader issue of the drought to its immediate consequence, food insecurity. The same logic applies to Blanks 2 and 3 - there are no noticeable disruptions in the flow of ideas here. The structure remains clear and coherent even without inserting the given sentence into these blanks.

However, when we look at Blank 4, we notice a discrepancy. The sentence before Blank 4 mentions farmers and pastoralists, and the sentence following it continues discussing pastoralists, but there’s a slight gap in the connection. If the sentences were closely linked, the author could have used pronouns or rephrased the second sentence to refer to pastoralists more naturally. Additionally, there’s a shift in focus: the paragraph moves from talking about "leaving them on the brink of famine" to "never being able to go back as their livelihoods have been irreversibly wiped out." This jump in ideas suggests the need for a transitional sentence to bridge the two concepts - enter the given sentence. Moreover, the "Many... Some..." structure works well here. First, the author mentions the larger group of farmers and pastoralists and how they were displaced. Then, the sentence narrows the focus to a smaller portion of this group, highlighting how, even for those who were not displaced, their livelihoods were so affected that they may never recover. This progression makes the insertion of the given sentence at Blank 4 both logical and necessary for maintaining coherence.

Hence, Option A is the correct choice.