Hard to believe your eyes: drought in Kenya and Ethiopia – OpenDemocracy
May 15th, 2006
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-africa_democracy/drought_3542.jsp
Mirage in Turkana, northern Kenya, Feb 06 (Simon Roughneen)
Driving through northern Kenya’s drought-affected famine district as the midday sun lifts temperatures to over 40 degrees centigrade, pools of water shimmer in the distance, laying between dessicated trees and shrubs, with the mountains of Turkana peering through the haze.
But these aren’t pools. There is no water here. By a cruel irony, this parched land taunts its thirsty and hungry people with distant images – mirages – of glistening oases in the distance. There hasn’t been rainfall since 2004, according to Akwari Nubukwi, an elder in the village of Kanigipur in the southern Turkana district. “We use the water from the riverbed, where we dig to find it. But it is just a little water, and even the goats and dogs drink from it”, he told me.
The locals who are now suffering without water, whose animals – their main food and livelihood source – are dying, know better to be caught out by the illusion of water. Akwari adds: “Many animals have died. We haven’t had rain for a year. People are losing their animals. We are hungry now.”
But the downside of the much-needed rain can be seen elsewhere in northern Kenya. Move east towards Somalia, and flash-floods from the rains that have fallen there have displaced thousands, washed away roads, brought about water-borne diseases, and stalled aid efforts. (more…)
Cattle dying, people next? – HeraldAM
May 2nd, 2006
Leaning on his walking stick, Shamsidin Mohamed flicks his fingers up and down in turn, alternating between whispering and counting out loud in his native Somali.
Emaciated cattle in southern Oromo region in drought-affected Ethiopia, clse to Kenyan border (Simon Roughneen)
By the time he has finished, he tots-up 23 cattle dead out of a herd of 70. It is a catastrophic loss. These herders are dependent on their animals for food and income. No agriculture is possible in such a barren, rock-strewn, sun-dried place, more lunar than earthly in appearance.
“This is very dangerous here. Just a little rain, but no pasture for the animals. Most people can’t count the dead animals. We have to move many kilometres every day looking for pasture, water. The animals are weak, they die in the bush, sometimes people don’t know when and where
The vital winter rains failed across southern Ethiopia, northern Kenya and much of Somalia, leaving Shamsidin and 8 million others in this vast desolate region balancing precariously between subsistence and destitution.
Here, with people utterly dependent on herding animals for food and income, destitution means potential starvation. With their skin stretched taut over protruding ribcages and calvicles, the cattle are emaciated, shuffling along with their heads bowed, as if lacking the strength to see where the herder is taking them.
And with livestock death and high rates of malnutrition visible among people, pre-famine conditions prevail in Ethiopia. And in northern Kenya and Somalia. (more…)
‘No water, no rain – we can’t feed the animals’ – Village
April 26th, 2006
Simon Roughneen in Moyale, Kenya-Ethiopia border.
At least five million people are chronically food-dependent in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation. In the Somali and Oromo regions, failed rains mean failed water sources for animals and for people. Failed rains mean no pasture or foliage for the cattle, camels, donkeys and goats that people depend on for food and livelihoods.
Livestock death is regarded as a precursor of famine (Simon Roughneen, southern Ethiopia)
Prices for animals plummet, meaning that sale prices cannot do much to help people purchase food and other essential items. As animals die, people are left vulnerable. Mohamed Yusuf, a herder moving his animals on the Moyale-Yabelo road in southern Ethiopia, said: “This is dangerous for us. No water, no rain. We can’t feed the animals. Twenty one of my cattle have died. I have no other source of income. And now I can’t sell any animals. The price is one-fifth of the real value before the drought.”
And although a little rain has fallen on the parched land, it is just that: a little. And the rains due for the next two months will likely be insufficient in any case. But the rain brings its own problems. A poisoned chalice poured from the sky, rain makes animals and people, already weakened from malnutrition, prone to diseases such as measles. And when rivers and lakes are watered again, malaria becomes a serious threat, and what is left of northern Kenya’s infrastructure has been threatened by flash floods.
In Somalia – a non-existent state is prey to warlords and gangsters, making delivery of aid difficult at best and downright dangerous at worst. And recent weeks has seen dozens killed in cattle-raiding in northern Kenya, as resources are depleted and the stakes are raised for men with guns.
And with pre-famine conditions rife in the drought-affected region, there is not much time left if another full-scale famine hits Ethiopia, and across the horn of Africa. (more…)
Drought intensifies in Horn of Africa – RTÉ Morning Ireland
April 5th, 2006
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0405/morningireland.html
Darfur: local conflict, international chaos – ISN
April 5th, 2006
Simon Roughneen in El-Fasher, Darfur
A senior Chadian general died in a battle with rebels near the Chad-Sudan border, close to the Darfur region, on 30 March. It was the latest sign that the three-year-old Darfur conflict is set to degenerate in the coming months, and could also lead to the destabilization of Chad and a Sudan-Chad war.
Since February 2003 – when Darfur rebels known as the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), joined later by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), attacked government positions in the western region – between 200,000 and 400,000 people have died from conflict or related causes, and over two million others have been displaced into refugee camps in Chad or Darfur. (more…)
“Our Goats are our Gardens” – Evening Herald
March 24th, 2006
Ekiru Lotiayan walked for two days with his herd of 35 goats just to reach this dried-up river bed near Lokichar in northern Kenya’s Turkana district.
6 months previously, this whole area was a freshwater lake. Now locals have dig down into the bed to find water (Simon Roughneen, n.Kenya, March 2006)
He points to a mountain on the horizon,
“That is my home. My family wait there for me to come back”, he tells us.
We have been suffering with the hunger for many years. In Turkana, we have not had proper rains for two years. Our animals are dying. And we are suffering. We need our animals to live. We have no other way.”
This part of northern Kenya is home to 600,000 people, out of an estimated 11 million people across eastern Africa that are affected by drought and food shortages. 3.5 million of those are in Kenya, east Africa’s wealthiest country. Elsewhere, 2.6 million Ethiopians and 1.7 million Somalis are vulnerable.
The area where north-eastern Kenya, southern Somalia, and Ethiopia share borders is especially badly affected. Lack of infrastructure, remoteness, marginalisation, and insecurity combine to not only undermine local people’s ability to deal with the harsh landscape and arid conditions, but hinder whatever aid effort can be mounted.
Ekiru’s goats scrimmage around a freshly-dug pit in the riverbed. After cutting 7 feet into the surface, the underground water welled up. Now a 10 foot X 7 foot pool of brown stagnant water is lapped-up avidly by the thirsty animals.
He says, “there is only one borehole within twenty miles. I come here because there are too many people looking for water everywhere. Sometimes there is fighting.” (more…)
Even Camels Thirst Here – Irish Examiner
March 24th, 2006
On the road between Lodwar and Lokichar in northern Kenya’s Turkana district, we met a woman carrying 15 litres of water in a container balanced on her head.
Turkana women at Lodwar, northern Kenya,March 2006 (Simon Roughneen)
She got the water she carries from a borehole further along the road. It is shared between around 100 families. And with the water table depleted, the water must be rationed. Moreover, the water she brings will be given to animals as well as her family. It will not go far.
It is an onerous task in any circumstances – but ordinarily Turkana women would not stop to rest while ferrying water even on the 7 mile roundtrip she is making.
It is now evening, and Esther is tired, weakened by months of not having enough food, and as she says;
“We don’t know if we will have enough food, there is not enough water.”
Here, where people’s lives are inextricably bound to their animals, no water means no food.
She adds, “Our animals are dying and they are our food and our livelihood. Without them we are nothing”
With 5 rings around her neck in the Turkana style, Esther is – or was – deemed well-off by local standards. (more…)
Drought, disaster loom – ISN
March 21st, 2006
Simon Roughneen in Turkana, Kenya
The failure of the long rains in late 2005 has left at least 11 million east Africans vulnerable to a severe drought and debilitating food shortages. As animals die due to lack of water and pasture, the people who depend on their livestock for milk, meat, and income are growing hungrier by the day. A region characterised by persistent food insecurity, eastern Africa now faces the real possibility that a famine could devastate its drought-affected areas.
Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya are the hardest-hit countries, with food insecurity also a problem in Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, and Tanzania. Meanwhile, in Sudan and Uganda, over eight million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) languish in camps, dependent on food aid. (more…)
Kenya needs reform – RTÉ 5-7 Live
March 13th, 2006
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0313/57live.html
Cradle of Humanity in Need – The Irish News
March 13th, 2006
“The area is dry, the problem is water – we have none. And when there’s no water, there’s no food”, says Paul Enyang, Chief of Kangakipur, a tiny village 30 miles from the nearest road in northern Kenya’s Turkana District.
To reach Kangakipur, we drove in scorching heat, weaving between the termite mounds and thorn bushes, the sole vegetation still alive in the scorched northern Kenyan terrain, as random camels, whose humps now almost flattened due to lack of water, scatter as the jeep approaches where they forage for whatever bit of scrub they can find.
Dried-up river beds intersected the road as we drove on, at first glance appearing like a regular crossroads on the approach. (more…)
