ETHOPIA: It is too early to say if recent rain has diverted drought, writes Paul Cullen in Moyale, southern Ethiopia
The tentative arrival of the rainy season in this parched part of the Horn of Africa has done little to alleviate the misery of herders and other farmers here.
Animal carcasses are strewn on both sides of the main road leading into Moyale from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, while the remaining cattle scrounging for food in this scrubland are emaciated and covered with sores.
One farmer tells us he has lost 10 of his 15 cattle to drought and disease, while another says that of his 100-strong herd just 10 survive.
Both men have now more children to feed than they have cattle.
The rains have put leaves on the acacia trees, lending the landscape a pleasing green patina that serves only to deceive.
Beneath this growth the ground remains dry and only the tiniest shoots of grass have emerged to feed the farmers' flocks of animals.
Water for both humans and animals remains in short supply as traditional wells have dried up.
"If there is no water there is no pasture," Guyo Tedacha, a 42-year-old herdsman, tells me. "And so there is no hope for us and our way of life."
With up to 11 million people throughout the Horn of Africa suffering the effects of drought, the limited arrival of the rainy season in recent weeks appears to have brought relief for farmers in less arid parts.
However, aid workers warned yesterday that it was too early to say that drought had been averted.
"The arrival of the rains is not the end of the problem," said John Undulu, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross in the region.
"Access to clean water remains a major issue, and much of the rain that fell ran off the hard ground."
Heavy rains have also washed away access roads, making it more difficult to gain entry to the worst affected areas.
For the weakest animals the deluges served only to finish them off rather than restore them to health. Many remain unable to eat the grass that has grown.
The Red Cross has relaunched an international appeal to provide assistance to the worst affected people in this remote part of Ethiopia, as well as similarly-stricken populations in Kenya and Somalia.
Although the Irish Red Cross and the Government have provided €150,000 in funding for Ethiopia internationally, only a quarter of the target of €1 million has been raised.
Most of the people in this vast impoverished region pushing up against the Kenyan and Somali borders are pastoralists who have traditionally moved with their animals in search of good grazing and clean water.
"These people are desperate," said Takele Jemeeru, general secretary of the Ethiopian Red Cross. "They depend on their animals for their livelihood.
"When their animals have no grass to eat they die."
But even before an animal dies, the problems start: a hungry cow produces little or no milk, thereby depriving families of another source of income.
Emaciated beasts are prey to numerous diseases and ill equipped for long treks in search of water.
Even so, desperate herders have been moving their animals north in search of functioning bore holes.
Up to 40,000 cattle have been moved in this exodus, many of them crossing international boundaries from Kenya into Ethiopia.
Drought is fast becoming a fact of life in these parts. With no main river in the area, farmers depend on the two rainy seasons each year to promote grass growth.
However, the rain has been erratic over the past decade and it is only six years since the last serious drought in 2000.
The vast scrublands that cover this part of southern Ethiopia cannot carry the same number of animals they used to. Over-grazing by ever more animals is accelerating the problem.
This time around up to 30 per cent of the cattle have died, and even the camels, which can go three weeks without water, are said to be in trouble.
In the markets the price of livestock has dropped as the quality has fallen.
The going rate for a head of cattle is now just 50 birr (currency) or about €5, instead of the €150 a healthy beast could once have fetched.
At the same time the price of grain has risen sharply so farmers cannot afford to buy supplemental feed.
The food crisis has seen an increase in ethnic tension and a surge in cattle rustling. At least 11 Kenyans have been killed and more than 9,000 cattle stolen in recent weeks.