Rainfall kills over 1,000 goats in Mandera West

By: IBRAHIM HAPPY

MANDERA—Over 1,000 goats were killed by heavy downpour at Mandera West Sub-county in Gither ward on Wednesday morning.

Gither MCA, Ahmed Rashid who spoke to Kulan Post on Wednesday termed the incident a “misfortune.”

Mr.Rashid said the animals have survived a prolonged dry spell only to succumb to heavy rainfall in the end.

He said the county government and the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) have been giving relief rations and water through water tracking during the dry spell.

“It is a very unfortunate incident as the goats were very weak and could not survive the heavy downfall. A family migrating from Gither to Ethiopia in search of pasture lost over 400 goats due to the downpour,” Rashid said.

The MCA suspects the animal death toll to be higher because some areas are inaccessible and with no communication due to poor network coverage.

He called on the county government, the national governemnt and other donor agencies to help those who lost their animals restock as this was their only means of livelihood.

NDMA drought coordinator, Hussein Alio regretted the happening and promised the government will chip in and help the families restock.

He however decried limited resources but said the government will do the much it can to cushion livelihoods.

Mr. Hussein stated that NDMA gave 16, 500 of 50Kgs bags of drought mineral-rich relief pellets to pastoralists in a bid to prevent possible animal deaths during the dry season.

He said some areas have not received rainfall and drought mitigation measures are being carried on by the government.

He added that the traditional drought-coping mechanism that helps in restocking cannot help as many families have been impoverished due to the prolonged dry spell that led to minimum animal production.

The long rainy season is expected two weeks from now with NDMA saying the drought is at alarm stage, fearing for the worst.