SOMALIA: North Gedo Region in food security crisis

NAIROBI, 12 June 2002 (IRIN) - Insecurity, due to fighting, and lack of trading activities have all contributed to an acute food security crisis in Gedo Region, particularly the north. Food intake for a large number of people is well below any acceptable minimum, a food analysis report said. This is despite the fact that productive animals have retuned from Middle Juba, Lower Juba and Bakol regions, and from Ethiopia (where they had been taken in search of pasture), the EU-funded and FAO-implemented Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) said in its June food security report. According to the report, the animals "are providing no direct benefits" to the population, due to the recent fighting in northern Gedo, and are still being kept in southern Gedo. The problem was compounded by the fact that trading activities, "which are essential for supporting the poor who do not have the necessary livestock holdings", had been disrupted by the recent fighting, said the report. The fighting had also added to the increasing caseload of internally displaced people in the region, it said. Prior to the current conflict, the inhabitants were dependent on food aid for up to half of their daily needs, and as there had been no distributions in Gedo since the end of March and early April, "food intake, especially [by] women and children, is below any acceptable minimum", the report warned. The report stressed that the Gedo population would be in urgent need of food relief even if it had remained unaffected by the current conflict, because three years of drought had eroded livelihoods, "primarily by reducing income earned from milk and livestock sales, casual labour opportunities and collection of bush products and self-employment activities". The drought also caused the outright failure of the few crops that were produced in the region, added the report. Meanwhile, the report also warned of conditions in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, particularly in the Sanaag and Sool regions. Following scattered Gu rains (April-May), these two regions continued to be "highly food insecure", and the FSAU recommended targeted food assistance for 2,000 households in Sool and 3,000 households for Sanaag.