Somalia

East Africa Floods

8 December 2023 Somalia Responding

Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya have been experiencing severe flooding as a result of heavy rainfall, leading to over 700,000 people being displaced.

Plateaus, plains, highlands and the longest coastline in Africa was the backdrop for a civil war that continued for more than 15 years. The consequences of conflict have resulted in great instability, displacement and widespread poverty.

With a staggering 73% of the population currently living on less than £1.50 ($2) a day, our projects aim to provide emergency relief and sustainable development.

Years of conflict and instability mean that millions of people across Somalia face an uncertain future. Out of a population of over 14 million, around 6.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

People and communities across Somalia share the same hopes and dreams as us yet many face life threatening challenges: poor access to safe drinking water, education and sanitation.

Community livelihoods depend on agriculture but climate change has meant unreliable rainfall and resulting drought. With a lack of water for animals, many families lose their livelihoods and are left increasingly food insecure as livestock perish. Families have little choice but to consume unsafe, unsanitary water, leading to the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and acute watery diarrhoea.

Islamic Relief staff member talking to a mother holding her baby.

Image: An Islamic Relief aid worker offers support to a mother and young child affected by the recent drought.

The situation in Somalia

Years of conflict and instability, and the effects of climate change has meant that many people in Somalia struggle with everyday life.

1 in 10

babies die before they reach their 5th birthday (World Bank, 2016)

56

is the average life expectancy (World Bank, 2015)

2 million people

do not have regular access to food (UN World Food Programme, 2017)

388,00

children under the age of 5 are acutely malnourished (UN World Food Programme, 2017)

Islamic Relief in Somalia

After 25 years of conflict, persistent drought and years of failed rains, Somalia has some of the worst development indicators in the world.

6 million people (half of the country’s population) are in need of humanitarian assistance, including almost 3 million people who are at risk of famine.

In the last 2 years, 75% of the country’s livestock have perished.

More than 1 million people have fled the country and 1.5 million who have fled their homes – there are 400,000 internally displaced people in Mogadishu alone.

Islamic Relief began working in Somalia in 2006, providing Ramadan food parcels and qurbani meat to poor families in the Puntland region.

Since then, we have expanded our programmes to cover education, health, water and sanitation, livelihoods and child welfare, with a focus on orphans.

Currently we are carrying out emergency and development projects in the South Central region – home to huge numbers of displaced people – and drought-affected Somaliland and Puntland regions. We have a country office in Mogadishu and field offices in Garowe and Hargeisa.

Among our key programmes in recent years is a $5 million project to drill 36 boreholes (18 in Puntland and 18 in Somaliland), some as deep as 400 metres. The project is ongoing, but the boreholes that have already been drilled are already saving the lives of people and livestock in areas where the rainfall has been critical and there are acute water shortages.

Islamic Relief in action

In Somalia, many communities are facing hardships due to the ongoing drought that has affected more than 2.6 million people in 66 out of 74 districts of the country. The communities in Baidoa and Dinsoor, in particular, have experienced severe food and water scarcity due to the climate crisis.

Islamic Relief Somalia drilled a borehole and water supply systems to help uprooted communities in Baidoa, where getting water meant long and hard journeys to the nearest water point – a task largely shouldered by women and children. We also built an animal trough to support livestock, and established and trained community members to form a water management committee, to look after their water facility into the future. Homes closer to the borehole were connected directly to the pipeline, with other homes able to fetch water from numerous water kiosks.

In August 2023, Islamic Relief and the Somalian government’s Ministry of Water handed over the water facility to the community. To date, the community are successfully managing and maintaining the water facility. In addition, the time it takes to collect water fell dramatically, to 5-30 minutes, giving women and children more time to spend earning or learning.