reddit UpvoteDownvotesubmit Somaliland’s three-year-long drought has crippled the economy of the breakaway, semi-desert territory in the Horn of Africa.
A former British colony, Somaliland gained autonomy from Somalia in 1991 but has yet to gain membership to the United Nations.
Around 2 million people, nearly half its population, have been affected by the drought.
“There was no rain in my area; the livestock had nothing to eat,” Faduma Abdelahi, who has lived on windy plains for the last two months, told FRANCE 24.
“The animals were hungry, they were weak, they could not move and they died.
Mowlid Mudan, from Save the Children Somaliland, told FRANCE 24 that the camp where he works makes cash transfers to 770 families.
The vast majority of families in Somaliland depend on cattle to make a living.
Somaliland’s foreign minister has blamed the international community’s refusal to recognise the state 26 years after it declared independence for the territory’s ailing economy.
“We do not receive bilateral aid.
If we were recognised, we could receive aid bilaterally, and attract international investors — so creating a more resilient economy that is less dependent on livestock.” The country’s leaders believe that if they can persuade one swing state in the African Union, such as Ghana, to recognise the country, the rest of the international community would follow, according to The Guardian.