Climate change in Somalia is increasingly a national security issue, according to a report released last month by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. A weekly read to keep you in the loop on humanitarian issues. All Rights Reserved.
“If I did, I will have to sell that rice at a price no one can afford. Your support helps us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide. Somalia and Climate Change. At least four charcoal trucks, each carrying 250-300 sacks of charcoal, leave Saila for Hargeisa, daily. Monsoon season rainfall has been unusually severe this year, triggering floods and landslides across the region.
Young boys walk through a flooded residential area in Belet Weyne, central Somalia, in 2018. ‘If we don’t do it now, no other reform agenda will matter.’ “Today, you secure an area, but you’re not very sure that tomorrow it will be secure. If I did, I will have to sell that rice at a price no one can afford.”Ali was forced to rely on an irrigation pump to water his farm – a prohibitively costly method given the price of fuel.
Full document 1.62MB Pdf © 2020 Global Greenhouse Warming. Somalia’s current climate is hot and dry, with uneven rainfall and regular droughts (USDS, 2010). “I cannot afford to water my whole farm that way,” Sheikh said. (Ilyas Ahmed/UN Photo) Years of clan-based violence was largely supplanted by The violence has caused waves of mass displacements, as have a series of droughts, with the worst in 2011 “Over the past 30 years, droughts have become more intense and frequent in Somalia, which also faces recurring flooding during the rainy seasons,” the UN’s emergency aid coordination office, Each climatic shock depletes people’s assets and reduces their ability to recover.Hassan Ibrahim Ali is a farmer in Jowhar on the Shabelle River – a historically fertile area about 90 kilometres north of the capital, Mogadishu.“We’ve had very little rain this season, much less than we had hoped for,” Ali told The New Humanitarian earlier this year. This report documents the impact of climate change on pastoral livelihoods in the two districts of Salaxley and Balli-Gubadle in the semi-arid Haud region of Somaliland.
Environmentalists estimate that four trees are cut to produce one sack of charcoal.The impact of climate change on pastoral societies of Somali land, 2009.
As a result, “insurgent groups gain recruitment opportunities and [their] political narratives gain support”, it added.Another layer of complexity is the difficult working relationships between the federal government and Somalia’s six autonomous states, which all resent Mogadishu’s urge to centralise control.“Even if the international community wanted to invest in large-scale infrastructure projects outside Mogadishu, the complicated working relationship and distrust between Mogadishu and member states would discourage them,” Zakaria Yusuf, a political analyst with the ICG, told TNH.How difficult the politics of water can be is underlined by the recently drafted National Water Act. It emphasizes the need to develop scenarios for the impact of climate change on grasslands, vegetation and agricultural production and suggests a more efficient use of water, and creating plans for equitable water sharing that target the specific needs of pastoralists and farmers. It emphasizes the need to develop scenarios for the impact of climate change on grasslands, vegetation and agricultural production and suggests a more efficient use of water, and creating plans for equitable water sharing that target the specific needs of pastoralists …
Torrential rain pounded central Somalia last month, causing flash floods that have affected more than 547,000 people, forcing 370,000 from their homes.Farmland and roads have been washed away in what is the country’s worst flooding in recent history, and diseases like malaria and diarrhoea Somalia’s two rainy seasons – the Gu’ from April to June, and the Deyr from October to December – have dictated the lives of farmers and pastoralists for centuries.But extremes, like the failure of the Gu’ and the exceptionally heavy Deyr, no longer seem so abnormal, and point to the growing impact of climate change in a country that, due to almost three decades of conflict, is already one of the world’s most vulnerable.Somalia has been in a state of near-constant crisis since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
The report concludes with recommended policy options and strategies for mitigation and adaptation.Another development is that charcoal-burning has become a major source of income for 70 percent of poor and middle-income pastoralists.A disturbing practice is charcoal production. Sign up to receive our original, on-the-ground coverage that informs policymakers, practitioners, donors, and others who want to make the world more humane.