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Posted on January 8, 2010 at 06:51:31 PM by mb
Somalia: Concern over deteriorating food security in Somaliland
ALLAYBADAY, 8 January 2010 (IRIN) - Low agricultural production, caused by poor rainfall last year in Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland, has put at least half of its three million people at risk of food insecurity, agricultural officials warn.
"We are very worried that the situation could get worse because last year the crop production in the western regions of Somaliland - particularly Awdal, Gabiley and Hargeisa - decreased so much compared to 2008," Abdulkadir Jibril Tukale, director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, said.
For example, Tukale said, Gabiley was the only region expected to record over 90 percent crop production, "which will provide some stocks for only the Hargeisa region, but Togdher and Awdal regions will depend upon food aid and loans".
Mohamed Muse Awale, chairman of the National Environment Research and Disaster Preparedness Agency (NERAD), noted that in November 2009, government and NGOs estimated that the livelihood crisis caused by rain failure had affected at least 40 percent of the population; that figure, he said, had since risen to 50-60 percent.
District officials in Allaybaday, in the Midwestern Gabiley region, have expressed concern about the livelihood crisis following the recent rain failure in the Deyr and Gu seasons.
Hassan Abdi Ali, the mayor, said some 12,000 families in the district had been affected, many of them losing livestock.
"We are very worried about the livelihoods of these people because they have not received any support, other than about 120 families to whom we distributed some food items."
Livestock dying
Hassan Abdi Abdillahi, an agro-pastoralist from Taysa area, north of Allaybaday, told IRIN: "I ploughed about five acres [2ha] that used to get me about 50 sacks [50kg] of maize and sorghum but this year my harvest produced only 15 sacks, which is very difficult to survive on in the forthcoming months with my family of 10 children."
SOMALIA: Somaliland in plea for food aid
Photo: Mohamed Amin Jibril/IRIN. Somaliland Vice-President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin and the Minister for Planning and National Coordination, Ali Ibrahim, address a news conference in Hargeisa, the region's capital
HARGEISA, 29 June 2009 (IRIN) - The authorities in Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland have urged the international community to come to its aid to avert severe food shortages and hunger due to a prolonged drought in the region.
Ahmed Yusuf Yasin, vice-president and chairman of the National Disaster Committee (NERAD), told a news conference in Hargeisa that Somaliland was experiencing the worst drought in decades.
"All six regions of Somaliland are affected by the drought; and 40 percent of the [3.5 million] population or at least 1,400,000 people are affected," Yasin said.
"We’ve called this drought 'Sima' [equalizer in Somali] because all regions are affected."
Yasin said the region required urgent help in water trucking, the rehabilitation of boreholes, and the de-silting of `berkads’ (water points) and dams. It also needed medicines and herds to be re-stocked.
"Nutritional support for the weak and sick will be also necessary," he added.
NERAD officials said the `Deyr’ (short) and `Gu’ (long) rains in Somaliland had been below normal since 2007 and this year's `Gu’ rains were especially poor.
Yasin said the cumulative effects of drought had resulted in a decline in reproduction rates and re-stocking for all species. With poor livestock body conditions, the number of saleable animals in local markets had declined, he added.
The drought had also affected a significant number of urban households whose income and food sources are linked to the livestock trade.
Photo: IRIN. A village abandoned following severe drought - file photo
Yasin warned of a serious humanitarian catastrophe if no steps are taken to avert the shortages.
According to local aid workers, those at most risk include the elderly and the disabled.
"When the drought affected all regions, the problems for the vulnerable increased, particularly disabled people who were used to being looked after in urban centres," Roda Ahmed Yasin, a sanitation officer with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), told IRIN.
Ahmed Yasin said he had come across a number of families with disabled people who were finding it particularly difficult to cope: “Before the drought they could provide for them but now everybody has his own problems, compounded by pressure for help from relatives in the countryside," he said.
Somali Officials to Meet WFP to Resume Humanitarian Operations
VOA, January 7, 2010, Peter Clottey
A Somali government spokesman says administration officials will meet representatives of the World Food Program this weekend to urge the humanitarian agency to resume its operations.
A Somali government spokesman says administration officials will meet representatives of the World Food Program this weekend to urge the humanitarian agency to resume its operations.
Abdulkadir Walayo says the Somali government is also calling on other international humanitarian organizations to help needy Somalis.
“Because of this development of stopping humanitarian assistance from the World Food Program to needy Somali people following the threats they received from al-Shabab, now, the government is looking (at) ways and means to resume that (operation) to Somali needy people,” he said.
Last Tuesday, WFP said that increasing threats and attacks on its operations, and unacceptable demands from various armed groups, make it impossible to continue reaching up to one million needy people in southern Somalia. But insurgent group al-Shabab denies attacking WFP operations. Walayo said government officials will soon come up with solutions to the humanitarian crisis now that the WFP has suspended its operations.
“The ministry of humanitarian affairs and other line ministries which have activities in humanitarian things will meet and then come up with the best way to resume the WFP activities in Somalia, especially in the Somali capital of Mogadishu,” Walayo said.
Al-Shabab, which controls parts of southern and central Somalia, was accused of expelling a number of UN agencies from areas under their control. Last month, the hard-line insurgent group was also alleged to have distributed food aid under forcible conditions in WFP warehouses in the southern Somali town of Merka.
Walayo said the government will continue its fight to combat rebel insurgencies.
“The government is engaged to sort out the security problem existing in Somalia, especially in the capital. And as the prime minister said… the government will engage to put to an end the occupation of al-Shabab,” Walayo said.
http://www.eastafricaforum.net/2010/01/08/somali-officials-to-meet-wfp-to-resume-humanitarian-operations/
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