HAMDA ABDILAHI DHAMAC, Displaced Livestock Farmer (through interpreter): I used to be part of a family of livestock herders.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Humanitarian organizations are distributing emergency food to ease the crisis in the short-term.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Most of that money, $10 million, has come from the U.S. government.
ASHA ABDI ALI: It’s still difficult.
We’re afraid the community will get waterborne diseases from the animals.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Water which has collected at a nearby earthen dam, has been completely contaminated by both dead and diseased animals.
JEREMIAH KIBANYA: And if people use that water because of desperation, and they don’t have any other water to drink, that poses another threat again to outbreak of waterborne diseases to the communities.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Six years ago, Dilla was in a similar position of hosting displaced persons from a severe famine which ended up killing 260,000 people in Somalia.
The last time we supported displaced people who had come here, everybody ended up suffering.
For the PBS NewsHour, I’m Fred de Sam Lazaro reporting from Dilla, Somaliland.