UN launches $4 million appeal for emergency veterinary care in drought-stricken Djibouti

With Djibouti’s worsening drought now threatening the prime source of income and food for thousands of rural families, the United Nations agricultural agency today is urgently appealing for nearly $4 million to provide veterinary services, food and water for livestock.

As the chronic drought in the Horn of Africa tightens its grip, pastoralists from Djibouti and neighbouring counties like Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia have been forced to continue their cattle’s grazing season along Djibouti’s coastal areas, severely pressuring the already overburdened pastures and contributing to widespread livestock deaths and significant declines in milk production.

And with remaining animals in poor condition, suffering from opportunistic parasites and diseases such as pneumonia, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called for a portion of the world body’s overall appeal for $7.5 million to supply farm families with animal feed, water and emergency veterinary care for some 50,000 head of livestock.

“These pastoralist families are dependent on their livestock for food and income. Many have lost their entire herds, leaving them with nothing to eat or trade,” said Fernanda Guerrieri, Chief of FAO’s Emergency Operations Service. She added that distributing feed pellets and basic veterinary drugs will provide a valuable arena to exchange information with the families on overgrazing and to prioritize problems so that they can be quickly addressed.

“The provision of food supplements and treatment of parasites and communicable diseases will help livestock recover quickly and increase their commercial value,” said Ms. Guerrieri, adding that emergency feed in the form of easily transportable concentrated feed pellets and the emergency trucking of water for livestock were required immediately.

She added that while the provision of food and veterinary care will bring immediate relief, operations to expand the reseeding of overgrazed pasture lands should be launched immediately, as the essential first step in a future rehabilitation programme. Food-for-work programmes could be used to support such operations.