Food Security Cluster

ERIGABO (SoOHA) – Sixteen vast grazing reserves in Oog in the northern Somali region of Sool that had been fenced off for private development by a group of businessmen have been returned by the local authorities to communal use for pastoralists. Oog assistant district commissioner, Abdi Idan Jam’a, told Radio …

HARGEISA (SoOHA) – Dozens of farms in Somaliland’s Awdal region have been invaded by locusts, leaving farmers wondering how they will recoup their losses.   The farmer who spoke to Radio Ergo in Harirad, Halimale, Maralay, El-Bahay, Qoqol, Arorsel, and Wears villages said their crops of tomatoes, lettuce, pumpkins, onions, and watermelons had been totally destroyed by the locusts.   Suleiman Hassan Said, the chairperson of Halimale farmers association, said his 27-hectare farm had been stripped clean by the swarm …

GALKAYO (SoOHA) – Nuro Osman Kayman, 56, sold her last healthy goat this month to get cash to try to stave off hunger for her family of nine in Bandardseed village, some 80 kilometers southeast of Galkayo town in Mudug. Around 1,000 families living in this remote village have been …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – Over 1 million children under the age of five are likely to face acute malnutrition through June 2020, including 178,400 who are likely to be severely malnourished, says the World Food Programme. Areas of concern include internally displaced person (IDP) settlements in Beletweyne, Bosasso, Qardho, Galkayo, Baidoa …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – The Dutch government has contributed $28 million to boost relief efforts by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. The UN body said Tuesday the contribution was part of an initiative to scale-up resilience-based development work in countries affected by protracted crises. The …

GARBA HAREY (SoOHA) – Like many Somali herders desperate to save their drought-hit livestock from death, Hassan Hared Omar had been carrying his most feeble goats on his back on the 32 km walk to the river Juba from their village in the southwestern district of Burdhubo. The only borehole …

AFMADOW (SoOHA) – Ismail Mohamed Shangolow used to keep livestock and grow crops on his six-hectare farm in Afmadow, in southern Somalia’s Lower Juba region. But following consecutive failed rains, he has been reduced to working as a middleman in a local livestock market trying to scrape together a living …

KISMAYO (SoOHA) – Dozens of families have been fleeing their homes in drought-hit villages in southern Somalia’s Gedo region, as telecommunications network outages have left them unable to buy food and water. Residents in Duya’a-Garon, Geriley, Awsquran, Darasalam, Damaso, Fafahdun, and Khadijo-haji in Elwak district have been facing intermittent network outages, …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – The United Nations is warning some two million people in Somalia are at risk of starvation, amid the country’s worst drought since 2011, and is calling for more support from the international community. Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to the country, UN Under-Secretary-General Mark Lowcock said decades of …

LAS ANOD(SoOHA) – Abdikani Mohamed Dubba, a recent convert to farming, is delighted to have increased his harvest of vegetables by about five-fold after being exposed to training. Abdikani, who lives Waqdari village south of Lasanod, grows tomatoes, onions, green pepper, red peppers and carrots on his farm irrigated with …