Somaliland’s President Ahmed Mahmoud Silanyo has issued an appeal for drought relief aid.

In a statement released from Hargeisa he asked the international community, UN agencies, international and local NGOs and the public at large to take action to save lives from the drought currently affecting large areas of Somaliland. It was, he said, harmful to lives and community development.

He said the rains this year had been below normal and uneven and indeed in some areas including Awdal, Salal, Saahil and Sanaag rainfall had been inadequate for three years.

A fact-finding team from the Amoud Foundation for Horn of Africa that visited Awdal, Salal and Gabiley has estimated that 150,000 pastoralists in the coastal areas of the country have been affected by drought and need immediate humanitarian assistance.

According to the team, the drought has already caused dozens of deaths and displaced over 90% of the population from villages in the affected areas.

************

Source: A Week in the Horn – June 29, 2012

Check the Somaliland archive or the Humanitarian archive for related posts.