Mogadishu Somali officials convened an emergency meeting on Monday to tackle the escalating drought conditions impacting various regions of the nation, emphasizing that the situation has reached a critical point for both human populations and livestock.
Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir, who heads the National Emergency Relief Finance Committee and serves as Somalia’s Minister of Education, Culture and Higher Education, presided over the gathering, which included high-ranking federal officials, disaster management representatives, religious leaders, and business community figures.
Attendees comprised State Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office Hirsi Jama Gani, the director of the National Disaster Management Agency (SoDMA) Mahmoud Moallim Abdulle, and senior presidential staff members, as documented in an official government statement.
Authorities presented recent evaluations of the drought, which they reported has significantly disrupted livelihoods especially in rural communities, with deteriorating scarcities of water, food and grazing areas endangering both human existence and animal populations.
“The circumstances have entered a perilous stage,” stated SoDMA head Abdulle during the meeting, cautioning that lives and livestock faced substantial danger. He appealed to Somalis both domestically and internationally to assist in emergency relief initiatives through financial contributions and essential aid supplies.
Participants underscored the immediate necessity to expedite a unified national response, advocating for enhanced collaboration between governmental bodies, religious authorities, and commercial enterprises to lessen the drought’s impact and safeguard at-risk populations.
Abdulkadir reaffirmed the federal government’s dedication to prioritizing drought mitigation efforts, indicating that administration would persist in mobilizing domestic and global assistance to diminish the consequences of recurring natural disasters in this Horn of African country.