(ERGO) – The income of women working in the butchery trade in Garowe has been badly affected by the downturn in the economy and the refusal of livestock owners and brokers to sell them animals on credit.
For the past three months, there have been few livestock arriving in the market in Somalia’s Nugal region of Puntland state.
Women butchers like Hawo Abdikadir Warsame, 45, is only managing to cook once a day at the moment for her seven children because she hasn’t had been able to do any business.
Hawo has worked as a butcher, slaughtering livestock for a living, for seven years. She normally buys two sheep on credit and pays the money back within five days after selling the meat, earning a modest profit of $7.
With everyone feeling the pinch and nobody willing to offer credit or loans, the situation for this single mother is now severe.
“Some days we get meals and on other days, we don’t. The rent, electricity bills, and water fees are all unpaid. We are mothers raising children on our own,” Hawo complained.
She is relying on food donations from neighbours, who gave her 20 kilograms of flour, rice, sugar, and 20 litres of oil. She is concerned that if she can’t soon pay the $260 she owes in rent, she might be evicted from their two-room house.
Her children are now at home as she couldn’t pay their fees in grades 7 and 8 at Waaberi primary and secondary school.
Adding to her burdens, Hawo told Radio Ergo that she had been summoned to the Garowe courts four times to settle a debt of $5,000 she accumulated over four years to some pastoralists from whom she had bought animals. She mentioned that she was released on payment of a bond.
She said she considered fleeing Garowe to try to escape her debts.
“At first, we had a little bit of money. We had some cash, but it’s all gone now. Day by day, things get worse. The livestock dealers no longer let us buy animals on credit. As for the pastoralists, they are not letting us buy their animals either. So we get nothing in the market,” she said.
Hawo turned to butchery in Garowe after her family had to migrate from Eyl district in Nugal, where their own herd of 100 sheep and 20 camels was wiped out by the harsh drought that peaked in 2017.
The women working in butchery feel desperate about being cut out the market, as the pastoralist livestock owners are mostly choosing to deal with brokers who will pay them upfront for their animals.
Hawo Yusuf Abshir, 70, a mother of five, used to earn around $6 a day, but due to the current economic hardships was recently evicted from her two-room house for failing to pay $90 in rent.
She is now living in a makeshift shelter made of scraps that she built herself to shelter her children.
“We are in a very difficult situation. We have nothing left. The cash we had is gone. Since we lost the cash, we have been living in a state of constant worry, without food or anything. I am not lying, when I woke up this morning I couldn’t even light the fire,” Hawo told Radio Ergo.
She explained that people she used to buy livestock from have refused to provide her with animals because they want her to pay for the animals on the same day instead of the normal five days.
Currently, Hawo’s family is surviving on around 25 kilograms of flour, rice, sugar, and oil given by some neighbours.
Hawo is also responsible for caring for her elderly husband, who is bedridden and requires constant care. The strain of managing her household alone, while also taking care of her husband, has been overwhelming.
She is burdened with a debt of $4,000 that she can’t pay. Like the other younger Hawo, she has been summoned to court seven times due to this debt, which adds to her anxiety.
“I’m 70 years old now. If you see me working, it’s because I have to work for the family. Sometimes, I think maybe it’s better to just leave. But I don’t have any other options,” Hawo said.
One of the brokers in Garowe livestock market, Abdirashid Ali Agub, told Radio Ergo that the women were having a hard time because pastoralists, themselves in difficulties, were insisting on cash payments for their animals so they could buy food and water.
He said brokers were similarly facing challenges and had also had to tighten up on the credit they could offer.
“The flow of money into the country has stopped. Livestock are now being sold through brokers. When brokers like me faced financial difficulties and women butchers were struggling to pay us back, we were forced to limit market credit to two days, as we are entrusted with people’s livestock,” Abdirashid explained.
