Surviving Drought in Somaliland

Photography

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Somaliland could be considered the ‘canary in the mine’ in a world that is getting hotter and more extreme weather conditions are becoming the norm. Somaliland’s nomads are living on the front-lines of climate change, with the increasing infrequency and ferocity of drought an immediate life-of-death challenge that pushes their already precarious existence to the edge.

This is a portrait series from one remote desert village, Boodlhey, six months after surviving the drought and acute food crisis which was declared a national emergency by the government in 2017. Approximately 1.5 million people have been affected by the drought and 80% of its livestock wiped out. Across East Africa, 18 million are suffering from drought and consequence famine.