Shoats (Goats and Sheep) have already started to die and according to the local elders “this is the first month of the dry season and shoats have started to die and many families are going to loose their animal herds to this drought since many are already in poor body shape due to their deteriorating body condition and increased prevalence of diseases that is killing the already weakened animals”.

The local community and the local regional administration are alarmed with the rate of the current animal deaths, when in fact this is the first month of the dry season. The fear is that; their will be large livestock deaths in the current dry season which is showing signs of drought because of the total absence of pasture and water for the animals.

Livestock herders and their animals are increasingly involved in tracking long distances in order to reach the appropriate watering points and livestock grazing areas, as a result many animals are being lost due to their poor body condition and disease attacks in the absence of good feed and many succumb to early deaths on their way to a better pasture and browse.

Weak animals are increasingly being left at homesteads, since they can not make the long distances involved to reach the pasture and watering areas, and many pastoral families are forced to care for this weak animals by providing water and animal feed at home which is an extra burden to the already struggling families who are unable to feed their household members because the animals are not producing milk and there is no local livestock market in which to obtain a good value for the sale of their animals, most traders will in-fact not buy the animals in the market because of their poor body conditions.

The ability of the pastoral community to withstand these adverse effect of the current hazards and shocks of the would-be drought is greatly reduced because of many intricate issues like poor roads, poor markets for the livestock, lack of animal health facilities and resources to increase animal production, and above all because of the absence of

Multi-sectored agency interventions, in key areas of livestock improvement, in addition to the long standing negative perception of pastoralism by the top decision makers.

The government of Ethiopia released a Humanitarian Requirement Document (HRD) on 2 February indicating that some 5.2 Million people will require emergency food assistance for a period of 6-9 months. The document also provides estimates of non-food emergency requirements in health and nutrition, water and sanitation, education and agriculture sectors on the basis of the multi-agency assessment conducted in November/December 2009.

The HRD indicates that the overall poor performance of GU rains in 2009, followed by below average Deyr rains in most parts of Somali region and the lowlands of Eastern Oromia, has lead to further deterioration of the food security situation.

Accordingly, the finding of the multi-agency assessment and subsequent monitoring results indicate that approximately 5.2 Million people will require relief food assistance in 2010. WFP the largest Humanitarian agency in Ethiopia is now planning to target 5.2 million beneficiaries rather than 4.2 million which the agency planned for based on an earlier need assessment. Out of the total projected 5.2 million beneficiaries, the HRD shows that 26.7 percent are from Somali Region of Ethiopia; 20.8 percent from Oromia Region; and 19 percent from Amhara Region.

There is also a fear that a considerable number of school children will drop out of school these year because of the drought related problems that is forcing their families to go further away from school area’s and into the interior to save their livestock holdings and search for better pasture, browse and water for their animals. In areas in which World Food Program (WFP) is implementing school feeding program; student enrollment and retention rate has been seen to be more than satisfactory as the school meals have been an incentive enough for the parents to keep their children enrolled at the local WFP supported schools.

Hence it’s necessary for the government of Ethiopia, the international Donors and community and the local Non Governmental Organizations to embark on concerted efforts to help prevent the loss of assets by the pastoralist to the looming drought by helping the community to build a strong livelihood income that cushions them from the negative impacts of the recurrent droughts and other natural and man made hazards.

By: Ibrahim Rashid