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A four-man team of veterinarians and animal health doctors from the United Arab Emirates arrived in Somalia on Tuesday to assess the health of livestock, UNDP's Somalia office reported. This is the third leg of the team's tour of Sudan , Ethiopia, and Somalia, according to a UNDP news release. The objective of the team's visit is to look at the health situation of animals and the condition of processed meat in Somalia, and to ascertain whether Somali livestock are free from Rift Valley Fever.
The team will visit Hargeisa, in the self-declared independent state of Somaliland, northwest Somalia, Bosaso, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia, and Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
"We are prepared to intervene at the highest level concerning this issue", the release quotes UNDP Senior Deputy Resident Representative, Andrea Tamagnini as saying. According to Tamagnini, the livestock mission is one part of UNDP's efforts to "find out what technically has to be done to facilitate the reopening of this market".
The Arab Gulf States imposed a ban on imports of livestock from Horn of Africa countries in September 2000, following an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Some 70 percent of Somalia's GDP depends on livestock production and trade. Since the ban "serious concerns have developed for the food security and livelihood of poor households in northern and central Somalia," said the UNDP release.
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