Declining nutrition in Puntland and Somaliland

There is a declining nutrition situation in the towns and poor pastoral villages of northeastern Somalia, the Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) said in its September nutritional update. The European Union-funded and FAO-implemented FSAU said health facilities, which had previously been recording low malnutrition levels as well as low children attendance figures, "are already noting a rising trend". The major urban centres in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland - Bosaso port and Galcayo - have experienced increased pressure from migrant labourers, "who are unable to get jobs" or who had been forced to survive on remunerations whose value had been substantially reduced, FSAU said. Prices had risen steeply, partly due to inflation, but also because of "the economic downturn in Puntland occasioned by the livestock ban [imposed by the Gulf Arab states in September 2000 in an attempt to control Rift Valley fever] and lately the mounting political tension".

Meanwhile, the report also warned of conditions in the self-declared state of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, particularly the Haud area. Poor seasonal rains in the Haud had left the predominantly pastoralist population "in a vulnerable state". In Togdheer, Somaliland, there were "consistently reported higher proportions of malnourished children" compared to other health facilities. Mother and Child Health (MCH) clinics in Sool region had also reported a sharp increase in the proportions of malnourished children screened in the months of April to June. FSAU said this was partly explained by the fact that the Sool MCHs receive patients and malnourished children from the Haud area.