Drought in the Horn of Africa
Farmers in Somalia say that they have not had rain for nearly two years. The whole region has been hit by a drought, the like of which has not been seen for 60 years. Four regions in Somalia have been declared as in a state famine by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia. Thousands have fled their homes—and their decimated livelihoods—in Somalia, either seeking refuge in population centres such as Mogadishu, or crossing the border to Kenya and Ethiopia.
Soldiers with a Somali militia sit in their technical behind the rotting carcasses of cattle, just outside the Somali border town of Dhobley, just five kilometres from the Kenyan border. When surface water catchments dried out in the area, pastoralists brought their cattle to Dhobley for water from the town's two boreholes. But with only pumped water available, there was no grass for the cattle to graze upon, starving them to death.
Some of the first effects of the drought were the loss of livestock and failed harvests, with many families losing their entire livelihood.
Somalia and Kenya · May - Oct 2011
