The National Drought Relief Committee of the Republic of Somaliland, has today officially declared a severe drought situation in the country, affecting 810,000 people.
The committee, which was recently appointed by the President of the Republic of Somaliland, Mr. Muse Bihi Abdi, and chaired by the Vice President of Somaliland, Mr. Abdirahman Abdillahi Ismail (Saylici), announced at a press conference that there is a severe drought situation in various regions and districts of the country, and they issued a press statement detailing the extent of the drought and the measures planned by the committee, as follows:
Based on the NADFOR preliminary report on the drought situation, at the 83rd Session of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Somaliland, the President of the Republic of Somaliland, H.E. Muse Bihi Abdi, appointed a Drought Relief Committee to assess the situation and formulate a response plan.
The National Drought Committee (NDRC) has launched a series of measures to address the issue of drought
- Deployment of a technical committee composed of member states of the Drought Commission and NADFOR which has studied the drought situation in the country as a whole and prepared a comprehensive report on the drought situation in the country.
- Rehabilitation of the 41 deep wells, which are located in areas of water scarcity, particularly in the Bari region.
- Government trucks have started water trucking in Togdheer, Sanaag, Sool and Maroodijeex regions.
- NADFOR has prepared food stocks for the drought affected people.
Following the report of the drought situation, I declare that there is a drought situation in the country that has affected all regions of the country such as: Sool, Sanag, Togdheer, Sahil, the Marodijex area, and the coast of Awdal region. The drought impact assessment has directly affected 810,000 people in need of emergency assistance such as water, food and medical care, and is also expected to affect approximately 1,200,450 people over the next four months.
To address this situation, the government has allocated $ 3,000,000 (Three Million Dollars) for food, water trucking and rehabilitation of damaged wells.
I urge the regional drought relief committees to be prepared to play their part in addressing the current drought situation.
I also call on the Somaliland business community, the Somaliland diaspora, the international community (UN, INGO’s and LNGO’s), international governments and Somaliland’s partners to play a role in assisting and rescuing those affected by the drought.
I call on the people of Somaliland to join hands, help each other, and pray to God to deliver us from this widespread drought.
Therefore, as of today, I would like to inform you that anyone who wants to address the drought in the country must go through the Drought Relief Committee.
Finally, I pray to God to break the drought and pour out his mercy on us.
