Residents living on the outskirts of Marka district in Lower Shabelle are using their bare hands to push back sand that has engulfed their homes after the vegetation that once stabilized the land disappeared due to climate change and environmental degradation. After years of gradual sand encroachment, it has now reached residential areas.
Families in Ceel Jaalle village say their livelihoods once depended on farming, which now yields very little due to prolonged drought and shifting weather patterns. Their livestock has also been affected, while ongoing insecurity has further disrupted civilian life.
Journalist Aweys Mumin Hassan, one of the reporters who benefited from SJS training in climate change reporting, filed this report from Lower Shabelle. Watch on YouTube Here