‘People and livestock are equal in hunger’: Drought leaves pastoralists in Somalia’s Sanag region without water, medicine or markets
In northern Somalia’s Sanag region, a yearslong drought has hollowed out pastoral life. Livestock are dying, markets have stalled, and families who once lived self-sufficiently off goats and camels are rationing water by the cup and living on credit they can no longer repay.
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For Mohamed Ali Salad, a pastoralist in Gurmale village, the collapse is measured in animals lost. His herd of 200 goats has dwindled to 30. He said 170 died as the drought stretched on; 13 of the survivors are sick and too weak to provide milk, meat or fetch a price in the nearest market.
“Our situation is hard in every way. We need water, pasture and medicine,” Mohamed said. “I borrow from one person and then another, sometimes I get it and sometimes I don’t. We depended on those animals and now there is nothing to sell. The people and the livestock are equal in terms of hunger.”
Income in his household of 12 disappeared in December. To keep a cooking fire and buy basics, he borrows small amounts from shopkeepers in Gurmale, who sometimes turn him away because of mounting unpaid debts. He now owes about $2,000 accumulated over the past 18 months for food, water and household needs — a sum he cannot clear with his remaining, weakened animals.
Mohamed said 30 pregnant goats miscarried before dying. Some kids were delivered stillborn, and their mothers soon followed. With the harsh jilaal dry season bringing intense heat by day and biting cold by night, the family is sheltering in a makeshift hut of cloth and tree branches.
Water is the most immediate pressure. His wife now asks neighbors for a single five-liter container a day — not enough for drinking and cooking. The family once drew clean water from a well in Hingalol, but it has dried up. The nearest alternative is in Buraan, 85 to 100 kilometers away, a distance they cannot cover with weak animals or pay to transport.
Deliveries by water trucks, when they happen, are prohibitively expensive. Mohamed said the last barrel they received arrived two weeks ago through a local charity, Tadamun Social Society. Truckers now charge no less than $170 per delivery, and a single barrel costs $5 — far out of reach without sales from healthy livestock.
Mohamed, who has spent his life as a pastoralist, said he lacks the skills to seek wage work in town. Around Gurmale and neighboring villages — Sibaye, Qoyan and Jingada — many are stuck in similar bind: animals too weak to trek for water or pasture, too emaciated to sell, and no other livelihood to fall back on.
In Sibaye, pastoralist Ibrahim Ahmed Salah said 57 of his 90 camels and goats have died since last year. The 33 that remain are weak, some visibly ill, and he cannot afford fodder or water for them. His family of 13 has struggled to meet basic needs since November.
“Life is extremely hard. We are pastoralists and the drought has hit us heavily. We have no water and very little food,” he said. “The livestock trade has stopped. There are no buyers and no animals fit for sale. We haven’t had proper relief for a long time.”
In late December, Tadamun Social Society delivered a short reprieve: 25 kilograms each of flour, rice and sugar. Ibrahim said his family has rationed the food carefully, but the supplies are almost finished. There is no health facility in Sibaye, and malnutrition and illness are increasing, especially among women and children weakened by hunger and long-term water shortages.
He described repeated miscarriages among pregnant camels and goats. Some goats appear outwardly healthy, he said, but when slaughtered their meat is dark and inedible — a sign of underlying disease and poor nutrition that is robbing families of both food and income.
The nearest functioning water source for Sibaye is also in Hingalol, roughly 120 kilometers away, where trucks charge $10 per barrel — a price Ibrahim cannot pay. Three of his children were sent home last month from primary school and Quranic classes after he fell three months behind on fees of $5 per month.
Veterinary specialist Dr. Farah Guled Omar told Radio Ergo that the livestock illnesses pastoralists describe are consistent with prolonged climate stress. Animals weakened by inadequate feed and chronic dehydration are more susceptible to “measles-like” viral infections, parasite-borne diseases and reproductive complications that lead to miscarriages and stillbirths.
Some commonly used veterinary medicines could help if administered early and paired with better feeding, he said. But in Sanag’s remote settlements, timely treatment and feed are out of reach. With households unable to pay for drugs or to truck in water, even treatable conditions can become fatal.
Across these drylands, the consequences of a non-functioning market are compounding. Without healthy animals to sell, families cannot buy water, medicine or food. Without water and feed, animals cannot recover enough to be sold. Each death deepens debt and narrows the options for recovery.
What families describe is not a single failure but a cascade: wells run dry, trekking routes become impossible for weakened herds, veterinary care is unaffordable, and the social safety nets of small shop credit are fraying as debts mount.
In Mohamed’s words, people and animals are “equal in terms of hunger.” The comparison is stark, but in Sanag today it is also literal. Goats that once provided daily milk have stopped producing. Camels that once carried the burden of long dry seasons are dying before they can be moved to water. The thin line between a viable pastoral economy and destitution is being erased by another scorched season.
By the numbers
- Mohamed’s herd: from 200 goats to 30; 170 lost. Of the survivors, 13 are sick and too weak to produce milk or be sold.
- Water distance and cost: nearest alternative sources 85–100 kilometers away for Gurmale; about 120 kilometers for Sibaye. Water trucks charge at least $170 per delivery; $5 to $10 per barrel.
- Household debt: Mohamed owes roughly $2,000 accumulated over 18 months for food, water and basic needs.
- Ibrahim’s herd: 90 camels and goats reduced to 33; 57 lost.
- Food aid received: 25 kilograms each of flour, rice and sugar per household from Tadamun Social Society in late December.
- School disruption: three children sent home after three months of unpaid $5 monthly fees.
As the jilaal tightens its grip, families in Gurmale, Sibaye, Qoyan and Jingada say the window for preventing further losses is narrowing. Without water, pasture and basic veterinary care, the region’s herds — and the households that depend on them — face another season of irreversible decline.
“We need water, pasture and medicine,” Mohamed said. “Now there is nothing to sell.”
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
