Drought menaces 90,000 people in Somalia

[Gabbal]

NAIROBI: The United Nations has appealed for urgent help for more than 90,000 men, women and children whose herds of goats and camels are likely to be wiped out by a worsening drought in Somalia.

 

 

Aid workers say rains are likely to fail in the Sool Plateau region of northern Somalia, aggravating four years of drought which have already decimated livestock and plunged families into deepening debt.

 

"We are already facing an acute humanitarian crisis, in particular in the Sanaag and Sool regions of the Sool Plateau, due to four years of consecutive drought," said the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Maxwell Gaylard.

 

"With the current rains apparently failing again, we can expect that most remaining livestock will die, the local economy will collapse and this could trigger large-scale population movements to towns that would adversely affect the health and welfare of the communities, in particular children," he said in a statement issued on Friday (NZT).

 

The drought has pushed food and water prices higher, forcing many families to supplement their income by cutting down trees to sell as charcoal, causing widespread environmental damage.

 

The government of the northwestern Somali enclave of Somaliland – which covers part of the affected region – appealed on Friday (NZT) for urgent help, saying it was facing its worst drought in two decades.

[Muhammad]

"With the current rains apparently failing again, we can expect that most remaining livestock will die, the local economy will collapse and this could trigger large-scale population movements to towns that would adversely affect the health and welfare of the communities, in particular children," he said in a statement issued on Friday (NZT).

It is true there will be health problems at the beginning, but I think it is better for the long run if these people began to settle down in towns or cities, so they could produce their own needs through argiculture or other means. some could also move to the coastal areas and earn their living from the sea.