The hard life of a Somali shepherd

BARUUD ABOKOR has lived in Baligubadle for the past four decades. Before settling in this remote Somali town abutting the border with Ethiopia, he roamed widely. “I was master of myself,” he says. “The economy was good and I had many animals.” But over the years successive droughts, and war between the breakaway region of Somaliland that he inhabits and the central government down south in Mogadishu, have taken their toll. His herd of more than 100 sheep has shrunk to a dozen. Somaliland, like elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, has this year suffered from the worst drought in living memory. But Mr Abokor is staying put.

This makes sense. Since Baligubadle is only a couple of hours’ drive south of Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, food aid reaches the town without too much difficulty. His herd was too weak to travel elsewhere in search of grazing when, earlier this year, the drought was most severe. Baligubadle has man-made boreholes, which keep...