Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland has said that it will take steps to tackle drought situation in its states.
President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gas said that the situation is worrying, adding that his government is fully committed to taking additional measures for tackling the situation and will do more to prevent a catastrophe.
“We are continuously monitoring the drought situation. There are some parts that have received rainfall, but we will do our best to prevent a tragedy” he said in an interview with the BBC Somali Service.
He called for the International Community to intervene the situation before it is too late and contingency plan should be placed in.
Last week, the Somali Federal government declared a drought situation in Southern and Central regions of the country.
Some of the hardest hit have been the nomadic pastoralists, who depend on their livestock for their livelihood. In the unrelenting drought, hundreds of livestock have starved to death due to lack of pasture and water.
International Aid agencies are warning of a famine similar to the recent one in 2011, where at least 260,000 people, half of them young children, died of hunger.
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