By Farah Aw-Osman

Somalia is no stranger to drought. Yet what we are witnessing today can no longer be described as seasonal hardship. It is a national emergency exposing the limits of our resilience and the cost of decades of underinvestment in water systems, land management, and climate preparedness.

Across Puntland, Somaliland, central regions, and southern Somalia, the land is cracking under relentless dryness. Reports and statistics do not fully capture the human toll. The seriousness of this crisis becomes undeniable when families abandon ancestral lands, when camels collapse under extreme heat, and when people begin to die not from conflict but from thirst and hunger.

During my recent visit to eastern Puntland in Nugaal, Karkaar, Raas Caseyr, and Bari, I saw what prolonged drought truly looks like. Grazing lands have turned into dust. Wells that sustained communities for generations are unreliable or empty. Livestock, the foundation of rural livelihoods, are severely malnourished. Camels known for endurance are too weak to walk.

Entire settlements in Nugaal have partially emptied as families migrate toward the Somali Region in Ethiopia or toward Bari in search of pasture and water.

Migration now carries a price that many cannot afford

Transporting livestock to safer areas costs approximately 1300 dollars per truck. For pastoral families whose wealth has already been diminished by dying animals, this amount is beyond reach. A sack of corn costs around 20 dollars. Water trucking ranges between 150 and 380 dollars.

Families ration water between children and livestock. Those who cannot afford to leave remain behind, trapped in worsening conditions.

People have died in Puntland as a result of this drought

The same tragedy is unfolding in Gedo in southern Somalia where severe dryness has also taken lives. Farmers face failed crops. Pastoralists watch their herds weaken. Water points are depleted. Several deaths have already been reported. These are not abstract numbers. They are mothers, elders, and children.

Other parts of Somalia are facing similar hardship. Rainfall has become erratic and unpredictable. Dry seasons are longer and recovery periods are shorter. Environmental degradation including deforestation, soil erosion, and groundwater depletion has deepened vulnerability. We must confront an uncomfortable truth. This crisis is not only about climate change. It is also about structural weakness. In some regions of Somalia, fertile valleys and long rivers overflow during heavy rains.

Flash flood destroys farms and then empty into the sea because sufficient dams and water storage systems are lacking. Meanwhile drought devastates pastoral communities and the country imports fodder from abroad. This contradiction reflects systemic structural weaknesses now exacerbated by climate change. Persistent gaps in water storage infrastructure, land rehabilitation, and climate adaptation planning has converged with rising temperatures and rainfall variability, accelerating environmental stress into economic and humanitarian crisis.

Drought in Somalia is both an environmental shock and an economic shock. Livestock represents savings, capital, and dignity. When herds die, wealth disappears overnight. Markets contract. Trade slows. Rural purchasing power collapses. Urban centers absorb displaced families and face additional pressure on fragile infrastructure.

The deaths in Puntland and Gedo must serve as a turning point. When preventable drought conditions begin to claim lives, the crisis has crossed a moral threshold.

International support is urgently needed, but it must be delivered in a way that ensures it reaches the people and regions most affected. History has shown that humanitarian assistance channeled solely through centralized structures does not always reach its intended destination. Too often, aid intended for vulnerable communities is diverted, mismanaged, or absorbed into local markets due to corruption and weak oversight.

We cannot afford to gamble with human and animal lives

International partners must ensure that assistance is directed to impacted regions through accountable, transparent mechanisms. Support should be coordinated with state level authorities, reputable local organizations, community leaders, and trusted humanitarian actors on the ground. Strong monitoring and verification systems must accompany funding. Lives depend on it.

At the same time, local businesses and the Somali diaspora must mobilize resources with urgency and integrity. Emergency relief is essential, but it must be paired with long term investment in dams, reservoirs, groundwater management, irrigation networks, rangeland rehabilitation, and domestic fodder production. Climate adaptation must move from policy language to practical implementation.

Somalia contributes minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions yet bears disproportionate consequences. This is a matter of climate justice. But it is also a matter of governance and accountability. Drought cycles are becoming more frequent and more intense. Standing in the same vulnerable position every few years is no longer acceptable.

Somalia is in crisis not only because the rain has failed but because systems meant to protect the vulnerable have not adapted quickly enough to a changing climate.

Lives are being lost.
Families are being displaced.  
The cost of survival is rising.

This moment demands more than sympathy. It demands accountability, transparency, strategic leadership, and unity.

The land is speaking

The question is whether we are prepared to respond responsibly and effectively before more lives are lost.

Farah Aw-Osman
Email:awosman@gmail.com