From: Horn-relief Bosasso Somalia
Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2002 

Subject: Recent changes in pastoral conditions in Eastern Sanaag

Dear Colleagues

It is the right time to inform you about the little changes that are 
taking place in Eastern Sanaag pastoral community 

First there were sporadic little rains everywhere. The rain was stronger 
in Bosasso area but that area is already bare and grazing growth for 
livestock is not expected but that rain was great assistance to the 
small-scale farmers who grow cash crops in the coastal area. The rains 
in the inland are not strong enough to give the pastoralists the 
security to forget the history of the drought they have experienced in 
the last six months. 

In some of the locations the rain was in fact good but the pastoralists 
never gave the land time to germinate edible grass. Two days after the 
rain pastoralists came from every region and to the rainy spot from all 
the directions. Sometimes you get confused how many animals are there in 
a small area of land. But they seam to be friendly to each other and 
they were grazing together peacefully. Goats and sheep are getting their 
belly full from rain grown grass but the camels are still not satisfied. 

The sky is still full of clouds and rains are expected to come at any 
moment. The concentrated grazing seeking pastoralists are expected to 
spread out in the coming few weeks. Life of the people has improved also 
a little. They have relieved them- selves from water trucking which is 
the biggest burden in their thoughts. Goats and sheep are changing to 
look better. That is a good indicator for the market price. 

There is no milk from the livestock because almost there was a total 
miscarriage during the winter months therefore, the life of the pastoral 
families will only depend on cooked dishes. At this time of the year 
pastoralists live only on the produce of their animals. There are some 
families that lost all their herds. These people used to get some 
animals from their extended families but in times like this, they moved 
to villages and only those who are willing to return to the hard 
pastoral life will have the possibility to be restocked by animals 
bought or collected for them. Many people say no pastoral life any more 
so they prefer to stay in the village as internally displaced. 

We have three teams now working with different communities to collect 
assessment information from the pastoral families. Only when the teams 
come back to Bossaso will we be able to report to you on our further 
suggestions. 

Best regards

Omar M Irbad 
Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization
Bosasso, Somalia Office
hornorg@hotmail.com