This report examines the history of epidemic disease in this region in order to shed light on the current COVID-19 pandemic and its likely course. Rather than attempt to be comprehensive, this study focuses on three diseases that have caused at least one serious regional epidemic over the past two hundred years: Cholera, smallpox and syphilis.

Iyadoo qeyb ka ah mashruuca Machadka Dooxada Rift ee ku saabsan xiriirrada xuduudaha ee u dhexeeya Soomaaliya iyo Yemen cilmibaarayaasha la shaqeeya machadka oo katirsan Jaamada Puntland State oo ku taalla magaalada Garowe, ayaa la hadlay Yemeniyiin ku nool magaalooyinka Bosaaso iyo Garowe ee Puntland si ay uga sheekeeyaan noloshooda.

As part of RVI’s ongoing project on the cross-border connections between Yemen and Somalia, the Institute’s partners at Puntland State University in Garowe spoke to Yemenis living in Bosaso and Garowe in Puntland, to discuss their lives there.

This report is the second report in a series looking at the relationship between modern-day Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of north-east Somalia, Yemen and the wider Gulf region. It focuses on the port city of Bosaso, which, historically, built its economic fortunes on easy access to the sea lanes of the Gulf of Aden and markets of the Arabian Peninsula. 

Aid providers in the Horn of Africa have always struggled to adapt their systems and models to the simple fact that people move from place to place. Delivering aid in remote areas normally involves establishing long supply chains that rely on populations being in places where they can be relatively easily 'accessed’. The refugee and IDP camps of the region, many of which were constructed as…

The displacement of millions of rural producers has made South Sudan one of the hungriest places on earth—and caused a chronic cereal deficit. This report explains how South Sudan’s reliance on regional grain markets is shaping its international relations. But it also looks in detail at everyday life: how homegrown grains give South Sudan’s diverse cultures flavours, memories, meanings and…

The research studies presented in this collection focus on people’s tastes for grains like sorghum, millet and maize and tubers like cassava—all of which form a major component of an everyday diet in South Sudan. The briefing draws on intimate conversations conducted in early 2019 by CUofSS researchers with Juba-based members of their wider family networks, and the female members of their…

This update summarizes the current political holding pattern around both COVID-19 and the political transitions in Khartoum and Juba, and how these interact with established long-distance trade and migrant work systems that drive the borderland economy.

The impact on the khat trade in particular is a good illustration of the economy’s regional and international connections, and the effects of anti-COVID-19 measures on cross-border movement and daily life inside Somalia. Measures to contain COVID-19 have imposed restrictions on khat imports (and consumption) that have affected livelihoods including women’s incomes, who make up most of the khat…

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) of 2020 is likely to have profound effects on stressed food systems in already hungry countries. Even before South Sudan reported its first COVID-19 case at the beginning of April, media reports indicated that the pandemic had led to restrictions on the movement of goods from neighbouring countries, which affected prices in markets across the country.