Thousands of people remain in urgent need of food, clean water, health services and essential household items along the north-western coastline of Somaliland in the wake of last Saturday’s Cyclone Sagar, the strongest storm that has ever made landfall in this part of the country. Hundreds are homeless, 47 deaths have been reported and a massive number of livestock have been killed.

“The cyclone comes on the heels of a series of natural disasters - severe drought that had left more than half the population in need of humanitarian support and ongoing floods that has destroyed crops, homes and businesses,” said Simon Nyabwengi, Country Director of World Vision’s programmes in Somalia and Somaliland. “We’re concerned about the high number of people who have been displaced by natural disasters and about an outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD/cholera) that is threatening people’s lives.”

“People urgently need food, shelter, essential household items like blankets and soap, health services and clean water, particularly the families that are displaced and being hosted in schools and temporary camps,” he adds.

Mohamed Abdi, a 57-year-old father of two boys in Warabe Dareeray village, is one of those displaced by the cyclone that has affected 1.2 million people leaving them in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.

“I have been living in this village for the last 37 years and have never seen such kind of rain with storms.

It was so new to me and my family, we thought it was the last day of our lives, we prayed and ran to the mosque when the heavy rain started. We have nothing, no food, no water, no blankets, no household items. My wife also died. But we have hope from our God.”

According to a World Vision emergency response team that visited affected areas, Cyclone Sagar caused massive livestock deaths, property damage and destroyed roads forcing many families to be displaced.

“We visited affected villages of Tijaabo, Waraqadhigta, Tuurka, and Waraabe Dareere which are under Garbo Dadar district in Lughaya, Somaliland. People do not have food. They sit at the mosque, school and madrasas with hope of getting some help. Many water systems were destroyed. People are fetching water from the open rivers with a lot of waste and this is putting them at risk of contracting diseases,” describes Mubarik Mohamoud, the response team leader for World Vision in Somaliland.

“All roads have been destroyed and telecommunication network also destroyed, leaving people with no means of communicating or receiving help from relatives using mobile money,” he adds.

World Vision has currently dispatched a response team and a consignment of essential relief items including bed sheets, fabric, clothes, soap, water bottles to support 6,000 people affected by Cyclone Sagar in Somaliland.

The child-focused humanitarian agency is also supporting medical services which have already treated 604 people at two health centres and three mobile clinics in Gargaara, Waraaba dareeray, Garbo dadar and Lughaya. Most of the people were treated for minor injuries.

World Vision is appealing for USD 600,000 and will continue to actively engage and work with various organisations and government to support the most vulnerable families with urgent needs.

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