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Food insecurity in the North persists alongside Jilaal dry season and conflict in Puntland

Food insecurity in the North persists alongside Jilaal dry season and conflict in Puntland

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  • Key Messages
  • Key Messages
    • In Awdal and Woqooyi Galbeed, earlier improvements in pasture conditions led to heavy livestock inward migration that has since exhausted pasture. Livestock body conditions further deteriorated during the Jilaal dry season and atypical livestock deaths have occurred. Of particular concern are an estimated 1,500 households who migrated from Shinniile (Ethiopia) and are unable to return as their livestock are too weak. With few saleable animals and no access to food credit, community support, or humanitarian assistance, they face Emergency (IPC Phase 4).

    • After a below-average Karan harvest in November 2015, many poor households in Awdal and Woqooyi Galbeed have no stocks and are more dependent than usual on market purchases to access food. However, poor households’ access to food is expected to improve slightly in April with the start of the Gu rains, which will allow households to use income currently spent on trucked-in water to purchase food.

    • Recent conflict between al-Shabaab and the Puntland authorities in Bari, Nugal, and Mudug has suspended humanitarian assistance and limited trade and population movement in these areas. As a result, market supplies of staple foods have reduced slightly, putting upward pressure on prices. This is constraining poor households’ food access in these regions. 

    • In southern and central Somalia, improved livestock productivity is increasing household income and consumption. Additionally, as a result of the above-average Deyr harvest, which followed favorable rainfall driven by El Niño, sorghum and maize prices are expected to continue declining through March. Agricultural labor opportunities will be available at typical levels starting in May, providing income for food purchases and debt repayment. Most poor households will meet their basic food needs, but remain Stressed (IPC Phase 2). 

    For more detailed analysis, see the Food Security Outlook for February – September 2016.

    This Key Message Update provides a high-level analysis of current acute food insecurity conditions and any changes to FEWS NET's latest projection of acute food insecurity outcomes in the specified geography. Learn more here.

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