The Red Cross launched an emergency appeal Monday for nearly one million dollars to help thousands of herders in Mongolia who have lost their livestock to one of the worst winters in decades.
The impoverished landlocked nation is grappling with a severe winter after a dry summer, a phenomenon known as a “dzud” that has led to extreme cold and food shortages for the livestock that many depend upon for survival.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), 4.5 million livestock — or nearly 10 percent of the nation’s animal population — have died since December.
Frozen animal carcasses lie scattered across the Mongolian steppe, half-buried in the snow.
Herders have told AFP that temperatures bottomed out in January, with the mercury frozen at minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit) for three straight weeks.
“The needs are steadily growing as more and more herders face up to the reality that many of their animals are dying,” Ravdan Samdandobji, secretary general of the Mongolian Red Cross, said in a statement emailed to AFP.
“More and more people are left distraught and increasingly destitute.”
The IFRC said the appeal for 935,000 dollars would provide families with emergency food and non-food relief, assistance with restoring and diversifying their livelihoods, and support to cope with depression and stress.
The humanitarian group — an umbrella organisation for the world’s 186 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies — added that part of the money would also go towards health education on issues such as treating frostbite.
The last major “dzud” occurred over three straight winters from 2000 to 2002, and tens of thousands of herders who lost everything moved to the capital Ulan Bator in search of work.
Most of them were unsuccessful, and unemployment in the country now runs at more than 30 percent. The IFRC said thousands more migrants could follow in the aftermath of the current disaster.
The United Nations estimates that 15 million dollars in emergency aid to herders is needed as they try to survive the winter and save their animals, ranging from cows, sheep and goats to yaks, horses and camels.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated last month that total economic losses stemming from the dzud had already exceeded 60 million dollars.
