Lack of rain in the eastern Somali region

Critical rains have failed in eastern Ethiopia, raising fears for vulnerable pastoral communities already living under precarious circumstances, aid organisations warned on Friday. The livestock-dependent eastern Somali region, which has suffered successive droughts as well as economic hardship, should have seen rains at the beginning of October, according to the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net). "These rains [from October to December] are critically important to the livelihoods of pastoralists, as they recharge water sources and replenish pasture, and thus sustain livestock through the dry-season from December to April," said FEWS Net in an emergency report. Somali region is dependent on two rainy seasons, known as the gu and the deyr. The gu rains provide 60 percent of the water needs for the region, while the deyr 30 percent. It is one of the driest and inhospitable areas in Ethiopia, where average rainfall in some areas is as low as 250 millimetres per year. Temperatures hover around 30 degrees Celsius every day. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in its weekly bulletin that food was being sent to the region, which is the size of Great Britain. Regional authorities had asked for more support. "The food security situation in most of the seven deyr rain receiving zones of Somali Region continues to be worrying, with poor pasture and livestock conditions emerging due to poor rainfall," WFP explained. "Food is currently being dispatched to areas of concern." Four million people live in Somali region, which shares a 1,600 km porous border with Somalia. Many eke out a nomadic existence, herding livestock and selling their animals at market. "This year, the performances of deyr rains in Somali Region have been very poor," FEWS Net added. "When the deyr season fails, the population in these areas usually experiences extremely stressful water and pasture shortages until the gu (March - May) rainy seasons." Only a handful of aid agencies work in Somali region, an area that has witnessed serious insecurity in recent years. "In recent years a combination of successive droughts, high cereal prices, conflict, and the ban on livestock imports to markets in the Gulf States has rendered the livestock-dependent population highly food insecure and increasingly vulnerable to poor seasonal rainfall performance," said FEWS Net.