HC

GAROWE (SoOHA) – Rough terrain and impassable roads are reducing profits for small scaleSomali coffee farmers in Puntland.  The farmers in the Al–Madow mountain range, stretching west from Bossaso to the northwest of Erigavo, are forced to use donkeys to transport their coffee beans to an accessible transit point, where they pay commercial lorries for onward transport to the northern port city of Bossaso.  Mukhtar Abdullahi Isse, who lives in Dadan village, has two plots measuring 2.5 hectares …

HARGEISA (SoOHA) — If she was to meet someone from her past life, Halima Dahir Mahmoud is not sure they would recognize her. She’s lost weight and is constantly stressed. She was once a nomadic herder who would roam the Ethiopian countryside with her 200 sheep and goats, and 50 …

HARGEISA (SoOHA) – Agriculture students from universities in Somaliland have been helping local farmers to master improved farming methods in order to strengthen their production.  Twenty-five students from Hargeisa, Golis and Beder universities in Hargeisa have been volunteering their knowledge and introducing skills to 500 farmers across Somaliland, including in Gebiley, Arabasiyo, Abarso, Adadley, and Dacadr-budhuq.  Mubarik Mohamed Iman, a …

HARGEISA (SoOHA) – In this week’s report from Somalia’s IDP camps, Radio Ergo visits Nasa-Hablood camp near Hargeisa, where destitute former pastoralist families face a lost past, an empty future, and constant threats of eviction from landowners. Fear and anxiety haunt the displaced pastoralist families in Nasa-Hablood camp, on the outskirts of the …

HARGEISA (SoOHA) – The community and local administration in Somaliland’s Saraar region havebrought relief to drought-hit families in villages facing acute water shortage.   Ulasan and War-imran villages in Saraar have been facing a longstanding water crisisthat has forced some residents to move away to other areas. The nearest water source is 30 km away.  Ahmed Mohamed Hashi, the mayor of Aynabo town, told Radio Ergo that members of the local assembly …

Conflict and disaster have shaped the lives of the Somali people for the last 30 years. Now, a new initiative is helping women to develop their own businesses – making them and their families more resilient to any future upheaval. The security situation in Somalia is still unstable after years …

GALKAYO (SoOHA) – An acute water shortage in a village in central Somalia’s Mudug region is affecting more than 1,000 families, some of whom have left their homes in search of water.  Hirsi Omar Hassan, the chief of Tulo-Barwaqo, said the borehole pump broke down two weeks ago and could not be repaired. They tried to raise money locally but the price for a new pump …

JOWHAR (SoOHA) – Farmers in five villages in southern Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region have raised community funds to construct an irrigation canal to reduce their reliance on unpredictable rainfall.  Adan Omar in Qafow village, near Jowhar, told Radio Ergo he was irrigating his two-hectare farm for the first time with water channeled from the river Shabelle.  …

ADAADO (SoOHA) – Hassan Aabi is carrying the weight of a huge burden on his shoulders as he counts off the days before the debt collectors come for him again.   With his pitifully depleted herd of 23 feeble goats, Hassan is struggling to support his three wives and 23 children in Benyo-ad village, 25 km south of Guriel in Galgadud.   Earlier this month, his creditors had him arrested and they …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – UN agencies have kicked off a four-day vaccination drive against polio in Somalia’s Puntland and Somaliland, targeting more than 945,000 children under five years of age. The campaign, which is backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), targets all children in 12 …