{"id":3525,"date":"2019-09-13T22:14:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T22:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/?p=3525"},"modified":"2019-09-14T06:19:43","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T06:19:43","slug":"network-outage-prevents-drought-hit-families-in-elwak-from-buying-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/2019\/09\/13\/network-outage-prevents-drought-hit-families-in-elwak-from-buying-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Network outage prevents drought-hit families in Elwak from buying food"},"content":{"rendered":"

KISMAYO (SoOHA) –<\/strong> Dozens of families have been fleeing their homes in drought-hit villages in southern Somalia\u2019s Gedo region, as telecommunications network outages have left them unable to buy food and water.<\/p>\n

Residents in\u00a0Duya\u2019a-Garon, Geriley, Awsquran, Darasalam, Damaso, Fafahdun, and Khadijo-haji in Elwak district have been facing intermittent network outages, following the destruction of telecommunication masts allegedly by the Kenyan Defence Forces.<\/p>\n

Most residents in Elwakrely on the EVC \u2018phone wallet\u2019 provided by Hormud Telecom company for their daily financial transactions, including buying food, water, and other essentials.<\/p>\n

Safiyo Aden, 48, arrived with her family in Busar in Bardere district after EVC\u00a0services were disrupted in their village of Awsqurun village in Elwak district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe place we came from had no network and we couldn\u2019t buy anything with what we have in our phones. Though life is hard, this place is better than where we were because at least we can use the money we have on our phones,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Drought has already reduced Safiyo\u2019s family herd of 75 goats and seven cows to just 25 animals.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Hussein, a trader in Elwak town, told Radio Ergo that business had been brought to a virtual standstill by the lack of network in the area.<\/p>\n

He trades in foodstuffs imported from Beled-hawo andBarderein Gedo, and from Elwakon the Kenyan side of the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe border [with Kenya] is closed, the EVC Plus system is not working and people have no money. There is no other way of buying something, so doing business here is difficult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Mohamed, food prices have skyrocketed, with 50 kg of rice now selling at $45up from $17.\u00a0 Most locals cannot afford to buy food at such prices, especially as they have been so badly affected by the drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other day as I was traveling, I saw a goat trying to cross the road, when it suddenly collapsed and died,\u201d Mohamed recalled, explaining how the purchasing power of local livestock herders was particularly hard hit.<\/p>\n

SahalMoalim Aden, Elwak\u2019s assistant district commissioner, told Radio Ergo that the residents of the district were mostly pastoralists. He said the food and water shortages were serious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges can\u2019t be counted. The water sources have dried up, communication is cut off, nothing comes by the roads linking Kenya to Somalia, and people have no money to buy food,\u201d he summarised.<\/p>\n

He said the federal government and aid agencies needed to intervene with assistance.<\/p>\n

Source: Radio Ergo<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KISMAYO (SoOHA) – Dozens of families have been fleeing their homes in drought-hit villages in southern Somalia\u2019s Gedo region, as telecommunications network outages have left them unable to buy food and water. Residents in\u00a0Duya\u2019a-Garon, Geriley, Awsquran, Darasalam, Damaso, Fafahdun, and Khadijo-haji in Elwak district have been facing intermittent network outages, following the destruction of telecommunication …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-food-security-cluster","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3526,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525\/revisions\/3526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}