(ERGO) – Jama Mohamed Hassan’s family of 17 is facing a severe food crisis after his grocery store in Ruqi, in Somaliland’s Awdal region, closed down due to unpaid debts by his customers.
Jama is owed a total of $6,000, accumulated over the last 10 months, by about 50 farming and pastoralist families who were his regular customers.
Faced by financial ruin, he himself is now having to take food on credit from stores in Baki district, managing to feed his family only one meal a day.
The situation has affected traders across Awdal region, with more than 40 shops closing in the past two months. This follows crop failure that left farmers impoverished and unable to repay the debts they built up from taking food on credit from the shops.
“The farms are empty. Our lives are in chaos,” Jama told Radio Ergo.
“We used to struggle to get food two out of three times a day. But now, there is just despair and we can’t even afford one meal a day.”
The crisis has forced four of his children to drop out of school. Their high school closed a month ago after most parents failed to pay the school fees.
Jama noted that the lack of rain has impoverished the community, whose economy largely depends on agriculture. The crop failure has affected farmers and therefore the traders too.
“People who harvested crops used to buy from us. When both farmers and pastoralists were affected by the lack of rain, we went bankrupt. Those who owed us money couldn’t pay back, so we closed our shops,” Jama explained.
The 65-year-old businessman has been in trade for eight years but now sees it will be difficult to survive this economic downturn and refinance his shop.
Wholesale food suppliers in Borama and Baki have refused to extend him further credit, leaving Jama disappointed and his shop closed.
Another shop owner, Abdisalan Mohamed Adan, has also had to close up his business, leaving his family of eight without enough food. They share meals with relatives, having previously earned $5-$7 a day from their shop.
One of the indebted local farmers, Abdinasir Abdillahi Abdi, owes $3,000 in food and fuel. He used the fuel to power a motor to pump water for irrigating his farm after the well dried up. Even then, his crops failed.
“We used to manage the farm getting some yields every four or three months, allowing life to continue as usual. But now, the town where we used to get supplies, whether it was fuel or household food and goods, has demanded we pay back the debts we have accumulated. As a result, we have been unable to borrow any more to revive our farms,” Abdinasir said.
Abdinasir now works as a labourer in the gold mines in the Simoodi mountains, sending his earnings to his family of nine. He hopes to return to farming when rainfall arrives, and farming conditions improve.
The local administration in Ruqi reports that the lack of rain has weakened the entire rural economy, with crop failure and mounting debts leading to business closures and displacement.
