Pastoral Link and Solutions - pals

12/05/2026

Join us in replicating Kigali Car-Free Days, a vibrant initiative promoting sustainable urban mobility and community well-being. These special days encourage residents and visitors to embrace walking, cycling, and public transport, fostering a healthier lifestyle while reducing traffic congestion and pollution. Experience the city's streets transformed into lively spaces for social interaction, fitness activities, and local culture.

Together, let’s create a greener, more connected , where every step taken contributes to a sustainable future. Embrace the change—let's make Mandera a model of urban sustainability!

09/05/2026

01/05/2026

27/04/2026

Mandera County in northern Kenya is facing severe flooding after an unprecedented period of heavy rainfall. The rains, which started earlier this week, have caused laggas and rivers to overflow, submerging homes, schools, and essential infrastructure. The government has not yet declared a state of emergency while rescue teams are working diligently to assist those impacted by the rising waters.

Numerous families have been displaced, compelled to leave their homes and find refuge in temporary camps. The floods have also hindered access to crucial services, such as healthcare and education, putting vulnerable populations at even greater risk. Reports suggest that livestock, which serve as a primary source of income for many residents, have been washed away, worsening the humanitarian crisis.

Local authorities and humanitarian organizations are mobilizing resources to deliver immediate aid, including food, clean water, and medical supplies.

Nevertheless, the extent of the disaster presents significant challenges, with many regions remaining unreachable due to the flooding. As the community deals with the aftermath, there is an urgent need for long-term strategies to improve resilience against future climate-related disasters.

The situation in Mandera highlights the growing frequency and severity of extreme weather events linked to climate change.

08/02/2026

The Horn of Africa is enduring one of the most severe droughts in recent memory as of February 2026. The October-December 2025 rainy season largely failed—described as one of the driest on record since 1981 in many areas—due to La Niña influences, with rainfall deficits under 60% of average in Somalia, eastern Kenya, and southern Ethiopia, and some spots receiving almost none. This marks consecutive poor seasons, compounding recovery from earlier crises. Forecasts warn of below-normal rains in coming months, risking further deterioration through mid-2026. Up to 20-25 million people face acute food insecurity, with Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels projected in hardest-hit zones. Livestock deaths surge, crops fail, malnutrition rises—especially among children—and tensions over scarce resources grow. Somalia declared a national drought emergency, while in Kenya the crisis spreads beyond traditional arid lands into counties like Kajiado near Nairobi.

When the Rains Refuse to Come: Lives and Livelihoods on the Brink in the Horn of Africa:

In the sun-baked expanses of the Horn of Africa, generations of resilience are being tested like never before. Families who have herded livestock across vast plains for centuries now face an unrelenting silence from the skies. Meet Amina, a mother of five in rural Somalia. Her days once filled with milking goats and tending modest crops have turned into desperate searches for water and shade. Over recent months, tens of thousands of animals have perished region-wide—her own small herd gone, leaving her children weak from hunger. "We walk miles every day for water that barely quenches thirst," she whispers, her voice heavy with exhaustion. "My youngest hasn't smiled in weeks. How do I explain to them that the rain has forgotten us?"

In Kenya, the drought no longer spares even areas close to the capital. Pastoralists like Maria in Kajiado County have watched helplessly as more than 100 cattle and hundreds of goats die since last year. Livestock prices have plummeted, forcing families into distress sales just to afford meager food or fodder. Herders travel farther—sometimes crossing borders—searching for pasture, heightening competition and risks of conflict. Children drop out of school to help fetch water or herd what remains, while malnutrition claims strength from the youngest. In Somalia, declared a national emergency, millions—including over 4.8 million people and vast livestock—suffer similar fates, with displacement rising as families flee dried-up sources.

This is no abstract crisis: acute malnutrition threatens children most, food prices soar, and livelihoods built over lifetimes vanish. The United Nations and partners project millions needing urgent aid, with lean seasons peaking now and risks escalating if upcoming rains falter. Climate change intensifies these cycles, turning once-manageable dry spells into existential threats.

Yet amid the hardship, hope persists through solidarity. Well-wishers, governments, and humanitarian organizations can turn the tide. Your support today—delivers life-saving essentials: emergency food, clean water, nutrition for malnourished children, veterinary care for surviving livestock, and seeds for future harvests.

Please act now. A small contribution can mean a meal for a hungry child, water for a struggling family, or a lifeline for a herder rebuilding. The people of the Horn of Africa are not seeking pity—they seek a fighting chance to survive, rebuild, and thrive despite the odds.

Together, we can transform despair into resilience. Will you stand with them?

08/02/2026

Drought and Donkeys in the Horn of Africa:

Drought doesn't just dry up rivers—it starves everything, even myths. In the Horn, where donkeys haul firewood, water jugs, whole lives on their backs, a bad season hits them first. Hide turns to leather, ribs poke like fence posts. They stop braying—too weak—or worse, they keep going, that awful hee-haw echoing off baked earth like a plea no one's answering. Vets say dehydration creeps in slow: sunken eyes, cracked hooves, then colic that twists guts into knots. Owners try everything—boil roots, mix salt licks—but when wells are ghosts, what's left? Feed prices spike, folks sell what they can't afford to lose. Kids walk farther for scraps, donkeys trailing, legs shaking. Some don't make it back. Then there's the stories. In Mandera, drought revives the Beast talk. Old Yusuf's beast wasn't just a donkey—it was the drought wearing fur. Burdened by centuries of failed rains, every cracked hoof a prayer unanswered. When animals drop, folks swear the Beast claims them—not eats, but absorbs. Strength sapped, they become part of it: eyes turning red, breath hot as furnace wind. Amina saw one once—a real donkey, half-dead, stumbling into the square. Then it...changed. Back bowed lower, legs stretched, carrying something invisible. The drought's weight, maybe. Or all the screams swallowed by dust. Effects? Real ones: malnutrition, foot rot, death. Myth ones: the Beast grows. Hungrier. Thirstier. Donkeys vanish, not killed—just gone. Left behind? Salt crusts in hoofprints. So if you're in the Horn now, tether tight. Feed extra. And leave salt. Just in case the burden's looking for a new back.

Brooke, Action For Working Horses and Donkeys
SPANA

08/02/2026

Mandera Drought 2026

Mandera and Somalia are both getting hammered by the same brutal drought in February 2026—failed short rains last year, the driest since 1981 in parts, and La Niña lingering.

In Mandera County, it's Crisis level, IPC Phase three, right now—over 300,000 people scraping by with huge food gaps. Livestock are in rough shape, milk's basically gone, herders trekking way farther for water, goats and camels selling for peanuts while maize hits crazy prices. Malnutrition's serious to critical in those pastoral zones, kids showing up at clinics looking like skeletons.

Government's rolling out six billion shillings plus more monthly—food bags, cash, water trucks, hay—but it's not enough with inflation biting hard and 2M-plus nationwide in crisis. If the March-May long rains flop, it could slide to emergency, Phase four, fast.

Across the border in Somalia, it's even uglier—Emergency, IPC Phase four, spreading since January in northern and central pastoral areas, agropastoral zones, and IDP camps. Up to 4.1M people facing acute hunger, with 1.7M in high-risk spots like Bay, Bakool, Gedo. Deyr rains tanked, crops failed at 10% of normal, pasture's dust, water prices six times higher, livestock dying off, no milk.

Food prices skyrocketing—sorghum up 71%. IDPs flooding in, clans clashing over scraps. Assistance is stretched thin, funding gaps huge.

Projections say Crisis and Emergency stick through May, maybe worse if gu rains disappoint.

Small pockets already teetering toward Catastrophe, Phase five, though not widespread yet.

The Horn's on edge—same dry spell, same desperation. Families running out of options, kids paying the price.

Pray those rains come !