Focus on nomads and the drought

Afghan nomads or Kuchis, once a proud community of herd raisers and merchants, have been turned into destitute farmers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and beggars by the ongoing drought in the region.

Brothers Gulab Khan and Brahim Jan herd a few overloaded and underfed donkeys on the highway to Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern Helmand province. "We lost most of our flock of some 700 sheep, goats and camels to the drought now we are left with these only," Khan said, pointing to the remaining few goats accompanying the family caravan.

"I sold a few of my animals for 500,000 Afghanis [US $15], we ate some because we were hungry, and most were lost to the drought," he lamented pointing at the barren land ahead where no vegetation has grown for years now. While the brothers continue to eke out a marginal living thousands of other nomads have faired less well and ended up in the growing number of displacement camps in the region like Spin Boldak displacement in the southern Kandahar province.

Habibullah Rafi, director of the Afghanistan Cultural Centre in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar told IRIN that nomads were an important part of Afghanistan's ethnic patchwork. "These livestock raisers have a considerable share in shaping the history and society of the country. "These sturdy have their areas of origin but they move, chasing pastures and water in different weathers," he said.

In the early 1980's Afghanistan's nomadic population was estimated to be 2.5 million, scattered across the country in almost all the provinces. Hundreds of thousands of them are desperately trying to preserve their way of life during the fourth year of the worst regional drought in living memory.

Many fail and end up trying to get work as labourers in areas such as Helmand and Kandahar where irrigation allows crops to grow. Those without work beg on the dusty streets of the region's towns. Traditionally nomads depend on livestock raising but they also engage in trade along ancient migratory caravan trails east and north of the central Hindu Kush mountains.

Fazal Muhammad, a seventy-year-old, from the Qalat district of the central Zabol province told IRIN: "Every nomad is left with only a tenth of their animals." Muhammad’s clan of some 30 families, Ghilzai Pashtuns of the Taraki tribe, are now landless labourers, some agriculture is possible in Qalat because of the nearby Helmand river.

"We are not used to farming, it's hard for us," Muhammad said, showing the blisters on his hands. "We get very little assistance and we can only work when the locals plant or harvest their crops. We are paid in kind but that's not enough to sustain us to the next crop," he said. Mercy Corps, an international NGO, is supporting the group with tents, utensils, wheat and oil.

Squatting quietly in a corner of her tatty woollen tent, Naik Margha Anna, a 55-year-old widow, told IRIN that her 10 and 12-year-old children had gone out to work in fields and may get some food in return.

But the ongoing drought is not the only factor impacting on Afghanistan's nomadic communities.
Anna and her clan of Ishaqzai Pashtun nomads were forced to flee from Shiberghan district in the northern Jowzjan province in the wake of the hard line Taliban's demise, who were predominantly Pashtun. They were now living in the arid lands close to Qal`eh-ye Bost.

"The Uzbeks [Afghan ethnic group] took most of our animals and we went to the Maslakh camp [in the western province of Herat] but were forced out of there as well," said Shah Baran, an elder of the community.

Rafie added that although there were nomadic communities among the Hazara, Tajik, Uzbek, Turkomen, Baluch and Aimaq ethnic groups, the vast majority were Pashtuns. "These are perhaps the remnants of our ancient Aryan heritage, living very close to nature," he explained.

"Drought is simply devastating for them," Rafie said, adding that over the past two decades they have been increasingly marginalised by fighting, unexploded ordnance and the collapse of governance in the country. "On top of that they receive little assistance from aid agencies who find it difficult to target these mobile nomadic communities."

Responding to the charge that aid agencies tend to ignore the transient nomads, Leslie Oqvist, UN regional coordinator for the southern Afghanistan told IRIN: "Aid depends on individual assistance actors but for sure the Regional Coordination Body (RCB) has been advocating increased support to the nomads," he maintained. "We have been helping them but to a lesser extent than what is needed," he added.