Thursday July 2, 2026
Pastoralist families in central Somalia faced with drought and livestock deaths/File Photo/Ergo
What remains in Dajimaale village, in Somalia’s central Mudug region, is a community under siege from thirst and hunger. Three straight years of failed rains have wiped out livestock, drained water wells, and left the families who could not flee struggling to survive.
While most residents have already moved on in search of pasture and water, more than 100 families are still in the village, many of them elderly people, widows, and households too poor to afford the journey elsewhere.
Busuri Abdikadir Ahmed has lost all his goats and can’t provide for his family of 10.
“Drought has taken everything from us. We have no water, no proper food, and no healthcare. The few animals that survived have now disappeared. We no longer know when we will eat. Sometimes we manage just one meal a day, but there is no certainty,” he told Radio Ergo.
Busuri, 56, said relatives sent the family five kilograms each of flour, rice, and sugar in early June after hearing about their situation. By rationing the food and cooking only once a day, they have managed to make it last, but the supplies are now nearly gone.
Water has become both scarce and expensive. A barrel brought in from distant villages now costs about $6, with bad roads and rising transport costs pushing prices up. In the village, people line up each day at the remaining shallow wells, which together yield only about five barrels in a full 24 hours.
Busuri often joins the queue before dawn in hopes of filling a single jerrycan, though many days he returns empty-handed. The unsafe water has also fuelled illness. Three of his children have spent the past week battling diarrhoea and fever.
“Diseases are spreading because of the water shortage. People are getting diarrhoea and bacterial infections from the water we are forced to drink. My own children are sick, but we have no medicine and they are already weak because of hunger,” he said.
He has repeatedly weighed moving the family to Galkayo, about 110 kilometres away, but the cost is out of reach. Transporting 10 people would require at least $100, money he does not have. Even if he could raise it, he worries the trip would be too hard on elderly relatives and sick children.
With the village’s last functioning wells steadily drying up, Busuri says staying in Dajimaale is becoming untenable.
Sadiyo Abdi Hussein, a 55-year-old widow raising 10 children on her own, says the family survives mainly on food occasionally shared by neighbours. Some days, the children go without eating altogether. The household can collect no more than 10 litres of water a day.
“Our biggest problem is the lack of water. The drought has made life unbearable. Sometimes we find food and sometimes we don’t, but water and healthcare are the greatest challenges. If assistance comes, those are the things people need most,” Sadiyo said.
Three consecutive years of drought gradually destroyed the family’s small herd of goats, once their only source of income and food security.
Eight months ago, her husband died after an illness, and the family was unable to pay for treatment.
“There is no hospital here. Even basic medicine isn’t available. If someone falls seriously ill, we can’t afford to hire a vehicle to take them to Galkayo because it costs between $300 and $400. We were pastoralists, but our livestock are gone,” she said.
Her children appear visibly weakened by hunger, and she fears some may already be malnourished. She has thought about leaving, but the cost of transport for her children and their belongings makes relocation impossible. Most of the families who managed to depart Dajimaale have headed to places where water is still available.
