Deteriorating food security outlook in Sool Plateau

Abnormal levels of migration of livestock into and within Sool Plateau, northern Somalia, will have "grave" food security implications for the pastoralist community living in the region, says USAID's Famine Early Warning System (FEWS). The patchy and short Gu rains this year, lasting from March to May, had attracted a large migration of livestock, FEWS reported. The resulting competition for scarce resources, such as water, had also resulted in an abnormal migration of animals within the plateau, as well as to the Somali region of eastern Ethiopia. Calving rates, milk reproduction and livestock value had been affected during the third consecutive year of below normal rainfall in the region. Lack of access to boreholes for livestock was becoming a growing problem, reported FEWS, which caused stress and reduced reproduction rates among female livestock. Households in Dhahar district of Sanaag region had resorted to trucking water to their weakened animals. In the short-term, there would be a reduction of milk at the household level, leading to inadequate diets and malnutrition especially among mothers and children. In the long-term, herd sizes would be reduced, which would put more strain on the environment as a whole, as pastoralists who had lost major livestock assets turned to other methods of survival such as charcoal burning. "One of the consequences will be the intensification of environmental degradation and high poverty levels," FEWS warned.