DJIBOUTI: Drought appeal for 120,000 vulnerable pastoralists

NAIROBI, 12 November 2010 (IRIN) - A "forgotten emergency" has left tens of thousands of pastoralists in Djibouti needing food and nutrition assistance as well as longer-term coping mechanisms, according to the UN.

The tiny Horn of Africa state is the subject of a US$38.9 million appeal for food aid ($16.2 million), agriculture and livestock ($6.5 million), health and nutrition ($7.4 million), water and sanitation ($2.4 million), and emergency preparedness and sanitation ($6.4 million).

Pastoralists and other rural dwellers have been particularly affected by successive years of drought since 2005, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"Water reserves have been depleted, there has been a massive loss of livestock, and as a direct result many people are facing the destruction of their livelihoods and lost sources of income," the agency said. "Increasing numbers of pastoralists have had to give up their traditional activities and are settling in urban areas."

Djibouti's food security situation is likely to further deteriorate due to the effects of La Niña events, expected to result in drier-than-normal conditions during the October-December rainy season, according to OCHA.

The country is also affected by the worsening violence and insecurity in neighbouring Somalia, OCHA said, with Djibouti hosting a refugee population of 14,500.

Launching the appeal in Geneva earlier this month, Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said, "Due to high food prices and reduced purchasing power, too many people are unable to feed their families.

"While this appeal will help meet immediate humanitarian needs, like food and nutrition, it is important that we also address the root causes of recurrent food crises and improve the country's capacity to respond to these emergencies," she said.

Djibouti is considered a least developed low-income food deficit country and was ranked 147th out of 169 countries in the 2010 UN Human Development Index [ http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/ ].

In an effort to mitigate the effects of drought, Djibouti abolished tax on food and some agricultural inputs and promoted the cultivation of unused arable land, according to Mohamed Siad Doualeh, the country's ambassador to the UN.

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Fight over water, pasture sends hundreds fleeing

NAIROBI, 9 November 2010 (IRIN) - Fighting between two sub-clans over grazing pasture and water has left 20 dead and thousands of families displaced from several villages in central Somalia, say locals.

"In my own town of Galinsor, about 1,300 families [7,800 people] have been displaced, out of a total population of 5,500 families," Osman Abdi, an elder, told IRIN on 9 November. "Many of the families have fled to surrounding villages and are living in the open or sheltering under trees."

An aid worker in the region told IRIN many of the displaced were nomads who were forced to flee their water sources. "They are now in areas where there are no water points," he said. "The lucky ones have camped outside urban centres like Adado. They and their livestock are at risk."

The fighting, which went on for a few days, pitted the two sub-clans of the main Hawiye group, the Sa'ad and Seleeban, against each other. Both clans were seeking pasture and water for their livestock following a drought.

"Resources, such as pasture and water, are at the root of the fighting. There is also an element of revenge killings," said a resident of Adado district, 30km south of Galinsor, which was the epicentre of the fighting.

Apart from Galinsor, other displaced civilians came from Bandiiradley, and the villages of Wad, BeenDharte, Dayno, Sarman and Biya Gadud. At least 1,500 families [9,000 people] fled Bandiiradley, 20km to the north of Adado.

"We have not had the expected rains [Deyr rains] and the area is parched," Abdi said. "They have very little access to water and food and we don't have anyone helping." Many of the families, he added, had been displaced for almost a week and the security situation remained tense.

"Our estimate is that between 2,000 and 2,500 families have been displaced," said the aid worker, calling for mediation efforts to ease the tension and allow people to return home.

The two groups have fought over grazing land and water sources sporadically in the past. Last week, both sides used heavy weapons, including machine guns and anti-aircraft guns, and "technicals" [battle-wagons fitted with heavy machine guns] in an area with very little cover, before the fighting subsided on 7 November.

Government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon said the new Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed had met members of parliament from both sides, as well as elders, and expressed his regret at the fighting. He called on both groups to end the hostilities and resolve their differences through dialogue.

An estimated two million Somalis need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN. At least 1.4 million Somalis have been displaced by fighting between government forces and Islamic insurgents, who control much of south and central Somalia, including parts of Mogadishu.

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