Devastating drought conditions around the administrative area called Bali-Shireh, about three hours' drive south of the capital of Somaliland, Hargeisa. It's not really a village per se, since this is a purely pastoralist area of Somaliland, very close to the border with Ethiopia.

These pastoralist communities have been devastated by drought. Families would normally live dispersed across the countryside, herding their animals to find good pasture and water, but now the terrain is a sandy wasteland. Here pastoralist communities have congregated at a school, which has one of the only functioning sources of water for miles around. Most of them have lost all of their livestock.

This is where Caritas Somalia, through its very small Caritas office in Hargeisa, distributed rice, flour, cooking oil and sugar to about 160 families who've lost everything. Water is also being trucked in from Hargeisa, usually by relatives, and the communities divide what they have equally. Some families had managed to save a few goats by giving them some of the little water they have.

CRS provided funding to establish the Caritas Hargeisa office in 2016.

A Somali woman in the IDP camp.

Photo by Nancy McNally for Catholic Relief Services