By Boris Bachorz
Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:07 The camel, its legs attached with branches, brays desperately, blood spurting from the cut artery; nomads in Turkana in Kenya’s extreme north have been reduced to sacrificing their animals to survive a bruising drought. “I brought this dromedary to have it killed and make a little money after the other one died of hunger with the drought,” Erkal Lorinyo (65) later explained as he watched as his animal being chopped up. Some 20 Turkana nomads have trekked for several hours across the scorched savannah in temperatures of more than 40°C (100°F) to this makeshift slaughtering point. A dromedary — the single-humped camel native to northern Africa — or a cow brings in 10 000 Kenyan shillings (€100, $147) for its owner, a goat is worth 800 shillings (€8) and the meat is shared out amongst the most needy. Desperation has prompted the Turkana to overcome their initial reluctance to abandon any of their livestock. More than 16 000 animals, including some 30 dromedaries, will be killed here before the end of the year as part of an aid programme set up by Vets without Borders Belgium and financed by the European Commission to the tune of €2.2-million ($3.2-million). … But four failed rainy seasons — one of the extreme meteorological developments that climate specialists attribute to global warming — have left Turkana’s population of half a million people on the verge of exhaustion, fueling tension and leading to survival tactics that only further harm the environment. Young women sporting the local Mohican hairstyle come carrying goats that died on the way and throw them down next to the dozens of carcasses spread out under an acacia tree without leaves. “It’s the worst drought since 1969, the year when the dromedaries died,” recalled Esta Ekouam, a grandmother who has no idea how old she is. “Most of those who can walk that far have already left for the town. Me, I’m getting by with food aid.” …
Blood instead of rain
