Dehydration and starvation have killed at least four children in rural areas around Guriel, as severe water shortages continue to threaten the lives of pastoralists in parts of Somalia.
Abdirisaq Mire, a local herder, said the children all below the age of five died in Marodile village, some 35 km north of Galgudud’s commercial district of Guriel.
As there are no wells, locals normally rely on water pans and boreholes that have now dried up. The price of water brought in from Guriel is not affordable to most in Marodile, having risen from 50,000 shillings a barrel to 120,000, according to Mire.
He said people no source of income other than rearing livestock, which are selling poorly in the market due to the drought. The rise in water prices has also been influenced by the poor roads, most of which are barely passable due to build up of soil and stones. Galgadud is one of five regions that Somalia’s National Disaster Agency warned could face a repeat of the 2011-2012 drought and famine and is facing extreme food shortage and hunger.
