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More than
one million people are estimated to be at high risk of dying
for starvation and lack of water due to a long spell of drought
in Somalia, local and international aid agencies have said.
The drought
is especially severe in the central and southern regions all
along the border with Ethiopia. The towns of Gebiley, Buro
and Odweyneh in the northwest known as Somaliland are also
suffering from the drought.
The worst
affected region is Bakol where several people are dying from
famine and its related diseases everyday. Its neighboring
region of Gedo is not any better where the famine claims the
lives of four everyday, according to the local officials.
Entire
villages have been abandoned in Bakol and Gedo regions with
thousands of families having moved from their villages and
countryside to the main towns in search of water and food.
The few villages where still some people are available include
El-Garas and Biyoley whose people travel 60 Kilometers to
get to Tieglow town for water everyday.
According
to Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Aden, one of the elders in El-Garas
village, after covering that long distance for water one should
still stand a long queue for nearly 24 hours to obtain a jerry
can of 20 litter water.
It is
the lack of water that mainly kills the people, he said. It
is not the people alone, but the livestock has also been affected
by the drought.
"Forget
about cattle, almost all of them have gone, but the goats
and camels are still struggling," said Kusow Issaq Hassan,
the chairman of El-Garas village whom the Xinhua reporter
contacted on the VHF radio on Monday.
The families
with goats and camels will still be able to survive a little
longer, he added. Where the security situation permits, the
aid agencies are trying hard to get food and water to the
most needy people in the regions along the border with Ethiopia.
The U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees and a Norwegian aid agency
have already managed to get water supplies for the villages
surrounding Buro and Gebiley towns in the breakaway republic
of Somaliland.
The International
Committee of Red Cross and the U.N. Children's Fund have also
supplied nearly 800 tons of dry food rations, nutritious biscuits
and porridge to the famine stricken families in Bakol and
Gedo regions.
But despite
these efforts, the drought is far from being challenged and
the people and livestock keep dying in daily bases.
In Somaliland
the aid can flow smoothly owing to the relative stability
in the region, but in the south and central Somalia, the fate
of the people remains uncertain since the lawlessness is also
another problem and nobody seems to be able to do anything
about it.
Unless
something concrete is done, the people especially in southern
Somalia will be dying in great numbers similar to their neighbors
in Ethiopia.
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