He says the knowledge he gained from regularly listening to Radio Ergo encouraged him to diversify his work and improve his income.

Ahmed, 47, now makes $80 to $100 a week that covers household expenses, supports relatives, and pays school fees for two of his children.

“We are now able to provide our three daily meals. It’s not only my immediate family that depends on this income. I also help friends whenever I can, sometimes with 10 dollars, sometimes smaller amounts. I support my parents with their daily expenses, and relatives often come needing assistance. Even with all those responsibilities, this work has enabled us to manage our lives,” Ahmed told Radio Ergo’s local reporter.

He rents a two-room house in Wadajir for $100 a month. One of his proudest achievements is being able to pay for his children’s education without depending on others:

“My children’s education comes with many expenses. I pay about 15 dollars every month. This work has given me independence. I no longer have to ask other people for help or wait for someone to support me. Instead, I work, earn my own income, and I am now in a position where I can even assist others.”

Ahmed’s business revolves around giving new life to discarded materials. He trawls through the rubbish collection sites to gather seeds from thrown out fruits and vegetables. He germinates them, nurtures the seedlings, and later sells them.

He also collects dry leaves, vegetable peelings and other food waste to make into compost to enrich the soil used for growing his plants. Although some people question why he searches through waste, Ahmed says he sees value where others do not.

“I have always found opportunities in waste. I collect these dry leaves people sweep away and turn them into compost to sell. I make use of things people throw away. Grapes, avocados, olives, oranges, even cassava stems – people discard them, but I plant them. After a few months they produce food. Waste can become something valuable if you know how to use it,” he stated.

Ahmed attributes much of his progress to the practical information he has learned through Radio Ergo’s Environment programme. He says he listens regularly through Mogadishu FM radio stations that rebroadcast Radio Ergo’s programmes. In March 2025, Radio Ergo published a story about his work. He says that exposure introduced many new customers to his business at a time when demand for his seedlings was still limited.

“I always follow Radio Ergo’s environment programme because I want to keep learning. Whenever there is something new that can improve my skills, I listen carefully. Since people heard about my work through the radio, many have contacted me. Some even called the radio station to get my phone number before reaching me. More customers started coming, and I am grateful because it has helped my work grow.”

Ahmed strengthened the business at the beginning of 2026 by applying more of the techniques he had learned through the broadcasts. Alongside selling seedlings, he also designs decorative plant containers made from cement, red soil and coloured paint.

“The two businesses are different, but they support each other. When I make decorative plant pots, people also want plants to put in them. Once I expanded into growing more fruit trees, demand increased. Many people want more greenery around their homes and they also want fruit trees they can benefit from. Each activity brings its own income,” he said.

Ahmed believes no form of honest work should be looked down upon if it provides a livelihood. His longer-term goal is to pass on his skills to unemployed young people so they too can earn income. He has trained more than 10 young people free of charge, many of whom are now using the skills to support themselves and their families.

Ahmed says continuing to listen to Radio Ergo’s daily programmes has helped him build knowledge and develop practical improvements for both his business and his household.

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Sahra Faah Ali owned a small café in Madah-lagu, where she cooked and sold meals and groceries, making $6 to $10 a day that covered food, water, her children’s education, and other household expenses.

But the shop and her corrugated iron house with two rooms, a kitchen and latrine were all burnt down and destroyed in the violence. Her six goats, some of them milking animals that supplied milk for her children, also had to be abandoned as they fled.

Sahra said she started her business with an initial $100 loan. It had grown to hold around $300 worth of stock that constituted her modest savings.

Hundreds fled to nearby Ari-adeye, where Sahra and her eight children and dependent on occasional meals and other support shared by relatives.

“We cook only once a day, and sometimes we don’t cook at all because there is nothing,” Sahra told Radio Ergo. “The relatives hosting us help when they can, but they are struggling too. We arrived with nothing, and our needs are many.”

She can no longer afford basic necessities, including drinking water. Families in Ari-cadeeye buy water from privately owned wells, where a 20-litre jerrycan costs about $1. She asks for 20 litres a day from the household hosting them, which is enough for drinking and cooking, but not for bathing and washing clothes.

“We have no proper shelter. We built a hut from plastic sheets bought on credit and sticks we collected. The mats people gave us are not enough. The children sleep inside, while we sleep outside. During the day we stay under trees because there is nowhere else,” Sahra told Radio Ergo.

Widowed four years ago after her husband died from illness, Sahra, 41, is the family’s sole provider. Since arriving in Ari-adeye she has searched for washing jobs but hasn’t found any paid work.

Three of her children had to drop out of their Koranic school that cost $30 a month in fees. She has other debts too:

“I owe $300 now, including the vehicle that brought us here and the plastic sheets we bought for shelter. I had no choice but to borrow after losing everything in the conflict. I don’t know how I will ever repay it.”

Hinda Farah Jama also lost her home and grocery shop when the fighting spread through Madah-lagu Hoor. The shop that supported her family of seven was burned, destroying goods worth around $3,000.

The family depends on irregular cooked meals shared by earlier arrivals in the displacement settlement.

“We cook only once a day,” Hinda said. “Sometimes we find food, sometimes we go hungry. Whatever we receive is never enough because we are a large family, but we have no alternative.”

There are no basic services in the settlement, forcing her to carry jerrycans from a well about one kilometre away. The water is salty, but she cannot afford cleaner water sold for $1 per container.

The conflict has also halted the education of four of her children, who were in primary school: “There are no schools here, and I could no longer pay the $8 monthly fee for each child.”

With her elderly husband unable to work, Hinda is responsible for supporting the family. After several weeks in the camp, they are still sleeping in the open at night and spending their days crowded into the small shelter of another displaced family.

The scale of displacement has overwhelmed the local community’s ability to cope.

The chairman of the Ari-adeye displacement settlement, Abdisalan Abshir Abdirahman, said local authorities had registered around 370 displaced families since the conflict began. The violence struck just as communities were beginning to recover from three consecutive years of drought.

“We have tried to mobilise assistance, but the needs are far beyond our capacity. People need food, shelter, healthcare and education. They have lost everything. Some are living in the displacement camp while others are crowded into relatives’ homes,” the chairman told Radio Ergo.

Having lost businesses, livestock and homes, these displaced households face an uncertain future with little means of rebuilding their lives once the conflict stops without external assistance.

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Most residents have migrated away in search of water and pasture, but more than 100 families, largely comprising elderly people, widows, and households without the means to move, are stranded in the village.

Busuri Abdikadir Ahmed has lost all his goats and can’t provide for his family of 10.

“Drought has taken everything from us. We have no water, no proper food, and no healthcare. The few animals that survived have now disappeared. We no longer know when we will eat. Sometimes we manage just one meal a day, but there is no certainty,” he told Radio Ergo.

Busuri, 56, said relatives sent them five kilograms each of flour, rice, and sugar earlier in June after learning of their situation. The food has been stretched by cooking only one meal a day, but the supplies are almost exhausted now.

A barrel of water transported from distant villages costs about $6, as prices have been driven up by poor roads and increased transport. The villagers queue daily at the area’s remaining shallow wells, which together produce only about five barrels of water every 24 hours.

Busuri often joins the queue before sunrise hoping to collect a single jerrycan, although many days he returns home empty-handed. The poor-quality water has also contributed to illness. Three of his children have spent the past week suffering from diarrhoea and fever.

“Diseases are spreading because of the water shortage. People are getting diarrhoea and bacterial infections from the water we are forced to drink. My own children are sick, but we have no medicine and they are already weak because of hunger,” he said.

Several times Busuri considered moving his family to Galkayo, about 110 kilometres away – but transporting a household of 10 would cost at least $100, far beyond anything he can afford. He also fears the journey would be too difficult for his elderly relatives and sick children.

With the village’s only functioning wells continuing to dry up, he believes remaining in Dajimaale is becoming impossible.

Sadiyo Abdi Hussein, a 55-year-old widow caring alone for 10 children, survives largely on food occasionally given by neighbours. Some days the children don’t eat at all. The family is able to collect no more than 10 litres of water a day.

“Our biggest problem is the lack of water. The drought has made life unbearable. Sometimes we find food and sometimes we don’t, but water and healthcare are the greatest challenges. If assistance comes, those are the things people need most,” Sadiyo said.

Repeated drought over the past three years gradually wiped out the family’s small herd of goats that was their only source of livelihood.

Eight months ago, her husband died after an illness as the family could not afford medical treatment.

“There is no hospital here. Even basic medicine isn’t available. If someone falls seriously ill, we can’t afford to hire a vehicle to take them to Galkayo because it costs between $300 and $400. We were pastoralists, but our livestock are gone,” she said.

Her children are visibly weak from lack of food and she fears they may be malnourished. She has considered moving elsewhere but cannot afford transport for her children and their belongings. Most families who were able to leave Dajimaale moved to areas where water is available.

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Shukri Arale Abdi, 42, says losing work in April has left her unable to provide regular meals for her seven children. Families who had employed her for daily cleaning told her they could no longer afford to pay her wages.

“I cooked beans this morning for my children. There is nothing else to give them. If they eat one meal today, they will sleep hungry tonight. We wanted to eat better, but we simply can’t afford it. Even the shop that used to give me food on credit has stopped. I have nowhere to work now and I just stay at home,” she told Radio Ergo.

Shukri said watching her children go hungry kept her awake at night. For two years she earned $3 to $5 a day washing clothes and cleaning. It covered food, water, and her children’s education. The food assistance her family received in Kabaso IDP camp in Dollow also ended in January, leaving them without income or aid.

“People used to call me because they had my phone number. Some paid me $5 and others up to $10 depending on how much washing there was.

Now nobody calls. Ethiopian women have taken over much of the work we used to do. We are sitting without jobs and life has become extremely difficult,” she complained.

A barrel of water in Kabaso camp costs about 300 Ethiopian birr (around $1.50). Shukri often sends her children to fetch untreated water from the Juba River a kilometre away, despite fears they could drown or be attacked by crocodiles:

“Water has to be bought. I already owe money at the water point, so now I borrow water from neighbours when they can help. If they can’t, we collect dirty river water instead.”

Shukri’s family fled drought in rural Dinsor, Bay region, in 2016 after losing 70 goats. Many other women living in displacement camps are also missing jobs and aid, and lack skills to find alternative sources of income.

Somali shillings have also been rejected as currency by traders in Dollow, where Ethiopian birr and mobile money have become the dominant means of payment.

Shiniye Mohamed Abdi, 36, lost her cleaning job in February that used to make her $4 a day working in middle-income neighbourhoods. The monthly food package she had received from aid agencies since arriving in Dollow, of rice, flour, pasta, sugar, and cooking oil, ended in December 2025.

She survives by asking better-off families in the camp and nearby neighbourhoods for food:

“Hunger, hardship and unemployment have overwhelmed us. Before, I could earn two or three dollars every day. Now we have nothing. If we cook today, we may not cook tomorrow. Sometimes neighbours share a little of what they prepare.”

Four of her children have dropped out of Koranic school after unpaid fees of $36 accumulated over three months.

“I had to withdraw them because I couldn’t pay the teacher. Feeding them comes first. I simply told them to stay at home because I had no money,” she said.

Shiniye receives no support from the children’s father, from whom she separated years ago. Her family first lost their livestock during the 2011 drought in rural Dollow, when they moved to displacement settlements in Ethiopia’s Somali Region and finally settled in Kabaso camp in 2018.

Some women have to replace domestic work by starting small businesses, but weak demand has forced many to close.

Nasro Ahmed Nur, a mother of four, invested $200 borrowed from a relative to open a small stall selling sweets, roasted sesame snacks, and confectionery after losing her cleaning job in February. The business failed because customers had little money to spend.

“After I lost my cleaning job, I opened a small stall selling roasted sesame and sweets. The little capital was gradually spent on feeding the family instead of growing the business. Eventually the stall collapsed and I had to close it. Now we are left with nothing.”

Nasro’s family moved to Kabaso camp in 2020 after floods destroyed her husband’s agricultural work.

For many displaced women in Dollow, domestic work was a lifeline but the job market is shrinking and also crowded, and aid has also been cut, leaving them desperate.

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More than 50 families have sought refuge in Buufow-Ba’ad village since early May, according to local authorities. Most are facing acute shortages of food, clean water, and shelter after escaping violence around Beder village.

Among them is Kaltumo Farah Osman, who arrived in Buufow-Ba’ad on 15 May with her five children after fighting between two clan militias forced them to abandon their home.

Kaltumo, a widow, said she spends her days knocking on doors asking residents to share whatever cooked food they can spare. When no one is able to help, she and her children go hungry.

“Our living conditions are extremely difficult. There is hardly any food here. I have five children to care for. Sometimes we find something to eat and sometimes we don’t. Today I have nothing to give them except to let them sleep hungry,” she told Radio Ergo.

She has been raising the children alone since her husband died from diabetes in 2024. They are sheltering under a few pieces of cloth tied together and held up by sticks.

“We have nowhere to sleep. I tied up these pieces of cloth, but if it rains there is nowhere to protect my children from the cold. I hardly sleep at night because I am constantly worried about them,” she said.

The family fled a three-room house toilet in Beder after armed men ordered residents to leave the land at the centre of the dispute. They escaped without any belongings, leaving behind eight goats that had provided them with milk and income. She assumes the animals have either been stolen or killed.

With no money for transport, Kaltumo and her children walked for 11 hours to reach Bufow-Ba’ad. Since arriving, she says they have received no humanitarian assistance.

Having never experienced displacement before, the family has struggled to adapt. Kaltumo has searched unsuccessfully for domestic work in Shalanbood and Marka, but says employers are reluctant to hire someone they do not know, while job opportunities are scarce.

She used to support the family through domestic work and occasional labour on nearby farms. Three of her children have had to drop out of their Koranic school since leaving Beder.

Dahir Abdi Shakur Hussein, who fled Beder at the end of May with his family of seven, faces similar hardship. Every morning he walks about five kilometres to Marka hoping to receive food from local residents. On good days he returns with about one kilogram of rice, which the family stretches over two days.

“We go around asking people in Marka for food. Sometimes someone gives us a kilo of sugar or rice, but many people have very little themselves. Our biggest problems are shelter and water. We have no plastic sheets to protect us if it rains, and we cannot afford to buy water,” Dahir told Radio Ergo.

The family previously relied on seasonal agricultural labour that earned Dahir about $4 a day working on leased farmland. Five of his children have also stopped attending Koranic school since the family fled.

He said residents of Beder were ordinary civilians, not combatants, who depended on farm labour after years of declining agricultural production:

“Fighting over farmland forced us to leave. Armed men told us to leave if we wanted to stay alive. We were not fighters -we were ordinary people trying to earn a living.”

This year Dahir had planned to cultivate a five-hectare family farm he inherited, hoping to rebuild after previous years of water shortages. Those plans ended when conflict forced the family to flee. The uncertainty is shared by many displaced households.

Fadumo Omar Haji, 60, and her family of six are now staying with another family in Buufow-Ba’ad. Her daughter collects firewood from nearby bushland, earning about 50 cents a day that can’t feed everyone.

Fadumo, who has suffered persistent headaches and ringing in her ears for the past two years, said her health has deteriorated further since displacement.

She used to earn $3 to $4 a day selling milk in Janale, about three kilometres from Beder. The family left behind the two-hectare farm that they had hoped to cultivate this season after recovering from previous years of water shortages.

Instead, irrigation canals were cut off by the fighting, ending any prospect of planting crops.

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Farhiya Ismail Ali’s vegetable stall in Gobanimo market closed at the end of April after soaring wholesale prices made it impossible for her to continue trading. Since then, she has struggled to provide enough food and water for her family of seven.

“The loss of my business has affected us badly because everyone in my family depended on me. We struggle to find even one meal a day. Sometimes our neighbours help us after the shops we used to buy from stopped giving us goods on credit. Life has become very difficult. I am the eldest in the family and my younger siblings look to me for everything,” she told Radio Ergo.

Farhiya became responsible for the household in 2025 after her mother died. Her mother’s small milk business had supported the family, leaving Farhiya to care for her four younger siblings and her 73-year-old father, who is too elderly to work.

She can no longer afford medication for her father, who has chronic diabetes and stomach illness. She relies on an uncle for a dollar or two to help buy medicine.

Wholesale prices have more than doubled. Tomatoes rose from $1.50 to $5 per kilo; onions from 50 cents to $2.50 to $3; and cabbage rose from 40 cents to $1.50 to $2.

Unable to repay $150 owed to wholesalers, she can no longer obtain stock to sell.

“The vegetables that became most expensive were tomatoes and onions, which were my best-selling items. I haven’t been back to my stall for a long time because of the debts I owe. The wholesalers who supplied me want their money, but I have nothing to pay them with,” she said.

She looked without success for cleaning work around Hargeisa. Her relatives living in rural areas have little means to assist them.

Three of her younger siblings were sent home from school in May after she failed to pay their monthly fees of $7 each. She owes two months’ rent of $25 for the family’s single-room home, which has neither electricity nor running water.

The family borrows one jerrycan of water each day from neighbours and uses a torch for light at night because they cannot afford electricity.

Farhiya’s family moved to Hargeisa in 2024 after drought wiped out their remaining herd of about 200 camels and goats in Togdheer region.

The prolonged drought and poor rainfall have reduced local agricultural production, while imports from neighbouring Ethiopia have also declined, driving vegetable prices sharply higher.

Wholesale trader Asha Abdullahi Ahmed said local farms had produced far less because repeated rainy seasons failed.

“We lost both the previous Gu [seasonal rains] and this year’s Gu rains. Tomatoes, lettuce, onions and cabbages became scarce because farmers couldn’t plant without water. At the same time, fewer potatoes have been coming from Ethiopia because production has also fallen,” Asha said.

Transport costs have increased because of higher fuel prices, while customers are buying much less than before. Many retailers either purchase smaller quantities or have left the market altogether.

Asha now imports onions from Yemen at between $1.50 and $2 per kilogram – three to four times the previous price of locally grown onions, which used to cost about 50 cents.

“In the 15 years I’ve been trading vegetables, I’ve never seen the market this bad. Prices are so high that people can no longer afford to buy. Business has slowed dramatically, yet the people supplying us still expect immediate payment,” Asha stated.

She is owed nearly $4,000 by customers and owes her suppliers about $1,000. If prices remain high, she fears her business will collapse.

Retail trader Halima Abdi Yusuf is facing similar difficulties. The mother of nine said her daily income of about $7 from her home-based vegetable stall had virtually disappeared. Although the stall remains open, there are days when she returns home without selling a single item.

During the past three months, customers have bought around $650 worth of vegetables on credit that she does not expect to recover soon. At the same time, she owes wholesalers another $300.

“Everything has become expensive. Many poor families who used to buy vegetables either ask for credit or stop coming altogether. The vegetables I buy at high prices remain unsold because nobody can afford them. Our livelihoods have collapsed,” Halima said.

Her husband has been unemployed for five months after construction work dried up, leaving the family entirely dependent on a business that no longer generates enough income. In June, four of her children were sent home from primary school after she failed to pay two months of fees totalling $80.

Families like Halima’s have long struggled to make ends meet in Hargeisa, but the sharp rise in food prices has deepened their hardship.

For many small traders across the city, the combination of prolonged drought, reduced vegetable production, expensive imports, rising transport costs, and weak consumer purchasing power has turned once-viable businesses into unsustainable livelihoods, with no financial assistance available to help them recover.

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Her business depended almost entirely on pastoralists buying meals and tea every day. The closure of her café cut off the only source of income for her family of eight. She had been making 2,000 to 3,000 Ethiopian birr ($10-18) a day that was enough to support the household.

“My business used to pay for everything – my children’s food, clothes, Koranic school fees, and all our household needs,” she told Radio Ergo. “Now life is very difficult. Sometimes we cook and sometimes we go without food. My customers were pastoralists, and once they left there was nobody left to cook for except my own children with whatever little food remained.”

The departure of the pastoralists also ended the supply of livestock and milk that sustained the village economy. As cash circulation declined, buying and selling almost stopped.

Fatuma said five of her children had been unable to continue attending Koranic school because she owes about $25 in unpaid fees for two months. She is under pressure from local wholesalers after failing to repay debts accumulated while stocking her café before it closed.

“I borrowed goods on credit and always repaid them before taking more stock. But when the pastoralists left, those who owed me money disappeared as well. I am owed around $200 by customers who left with their livestock, while I owe suppliers about $400. I don’t even know where to find the people who owe me,” she said.

Her husband can’t find work locally. He normally travels seasonally to Galkayo and Warder to earn money doing manual labour, but there are few opportunities now.

A barrel of water costs about $5 after being trucked nearly 30 kilometres from the nearest water source. Fatuma borrows 20-litre jerrycans from neighbours whenever possible as she has no cash.

Small businesses across Qaranracade are facing similar hardships. Abdirahman Hassan Abdulle, who supports a family of 10, closed his restaurant two months ago after losing nearly all his customers.

He used to slaughter up to two goats a day, making around $40 daily selling cooked meat and meals.

“The restaurant has been closed for the past two months. My family depended entirely on it and we could eat three meals a day. Now if we manage one meal, we are grateful. Sometimes we cook supper and save part of it for breakfast because there is nothing else,” he said.

Abdirahman owes about $700 to suppliers. He himself is owed $300 by his pastoralist customers who left the area before settling their debts. His family is also running out of water after buying a truckload for $100 on credit a month ago.

He hopes when the pastoralists come back his business could reopen, but he doesn’t know how long that could take.

“My restaurant served this community for more than 10 years, but I’ve never seen drought affect us like this. The pastoralists moved nearly 200 kilometres away. They used to bring livestock and milk and buy food from us. Once they left, the whole local economy stopped,” he told Radio Ergo.

Abdirahman himself was once a pastoralist before losing 160 goats and five camels during the severe Sima drought around 2011. He moved to the village in 2016 hoping to build a more secure livelihood through trade.

Community elder Abdiwahid Mahamud Aw-Khalaf said the prolonged drought had weakened the entire local economy by driving away the pastoralist families who sustained businesses in the settlement.

Around 300 permanent households live in Qaranracade, but more than 1,000 pastoralist families lived around the village, bringing milk, livestock, and other products to market while purchasing food and household goods from local traders.

He said about two-thirds of the village’s businesses had closed.

“The whole economy here depends on pastoralist families. When they stop bringing milk and livestock and stop buying from local shops, the market collapses. Businesses close, jobs disappear, and eventually even permanent residents begin leaving because they can no longer survive here.,” he said.

Across Ethiopia’s Doolo Zone, prolonged drought has forced many pastoralist families to migrate in search of water and pasture, leaving others in the intertwined social economy bereft of income and other resources.

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