Families forced into camps by drought

Thousands of people affected by drought in Galgadud, central Somalia, have abandoned their homes and moved into displaced person's camps around Guri-Eil town, local sources said.

"We have registered some 2,700 families [16,200 people] who have arrived from rural areas after losing their livestock in the last couple of months," said Ali Sheikh Mahamud, the Guri-Eil district commissioner.

"People are still leaving the rural areas, and we have an average of 15-20 families coming on a daily basis," he said, adding that during a visit to the area on 18 September, he met families who had arrived with nothing.

Mohamed Dahir, 30, whose two-year-old son died of hunger, told IRIN he arrived in the Ali Camp, which was set up for pastoralists, two weeks ago.

"I lost 400 heads of goats and sheep and 70 cows," he said. "I had been considered well-off, but I watched my boy die of hunger and could do nothing. Now I am reduced to begging to save the rest of my family."

Guri-Eil, like most of central Somalia, has not had any rains for three years and the "Deyr" (short rains) that should have started in early September failed. As a result, many water points vital to people and their livestock dried up.

"Even the Barkads [water catchments] have dried up," the district commissioner said. "Five children died of hunger in the camps in a 48-hour period. If help does not arrive soon, many more children and adults will die."

Halima Ismail, who coordinates activities for IIDA, a local NGO, and represents CISP, an Italian NGO, in central region, told IRIN the pastoralists were desperate.

"I have seen malnourished children before but I have never seen anything like this," she said. During a visit to Ali Camp on 18 September she found the pastoralists far worse off than other internally displaced persons (IDP).

"Some of the urban IDPs have settled into the host community but these are outsiders and rural," she said. "There is an urgent need to set up feeding centres for these children."

Guri-Eil residents have set up a committee of elders and religious leaders to raise funds to help the families arriving in the town.

"We have been collecting from the residents and the business community to give them some food, but it is only enough for a few days," Mahamud said. The International Committee of the Red Cross had distributed some food in August, but it was not enough.

According to the Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the humanitarian situation in Somalia is one of the worst in world.

"Within the first six months of this year, the number of people requiring emergency livelihood and humanitarian support increased 77 percent, from 1.83 million to 3.25 million, affecting 43 percent of the entire population of the country," it said in a statement issued on 26 August.

"One in six children under the age of five is acutely malnourished, and the number is continuing to increase," FSAU added.

ah/mw