Figure 1.20: Drought-affected areas in the Horn of Africa This map shows anomalies in the mean value of soil moisture for the month of December 2016. Values were calculated taking as reference the average value of 30 years of Earth Observation data from 1982 to 2011. Red areas represent below average values while blue areas represent above average values. Above average values Soil moisture difference Below average values Sources: Soil moisture difference anomaly (NOAA NCEP CPC, 2016). The boundaries, names and designations shown in this map do not imply any official endorsement or acceptance by IDMC. cross-border movements are likely to become far more significant, as happened during the 2011 famine.132 The short-term cross-border displacement of pastoralists from Somaliland and from the Somali region of Ethiopia into the small neighbouring state of Djibouti was also recorded. Djibouti is an important transit point for migrants and displaced people heading for the Gulf states and beyond, and a relatively stable hub where international assistance can be accessed.133 Thousands of pastoralists were displaced there between January and April 2016, at which point 9,650 people were sheltering among local communities in the Ali-Sabieh, Dickhil and Obock regions.134 Many pregnant women and children under five among them showed signs of acute malnutrition and anaemia, and half of the adults were underweight and weakened by tuberculosis and other illnesses.135 With almost a quarter of Djibouti’s population living in extreme poverty, the acute needs of the new arrivals stretched local services and the scarce resources of their hosts.136 A month later most had returned to their countries of origin.137 Given that for many people in the Horn of Africa mobility within and across borders is central to their livelihoods, culture and normal adaptive behaviour, those no longer able or allowed to range further afield in search of pasture or assistance should be of equal or even greater concern. Hundreds of pastoralist families in the severely drought-affected Sanaag region of eastern Somaliland were left behind without the money or means to move away and little left to live on in 2016.138 Along the Kenya-Somalia border, the free movement of pastoralists and their livestock between available pasture in traditional grazing lands was restricted by the building of walls and trenches by militant groups, while the potential for conflict over scarce water and pasture has increased.139 The cross-border movement of pastoralists may generally be permitted in other border areas, but it is largely unprotected by law. Nor does the human right to freedom of movement protect cross-border mobility, and the definition of a “migrant worker” in the International Covenant on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families is not adapted to the traditional livelihood mobility of pastoralists. Article 2(1) describes a migrant worker as a “person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national.”140 The African Union and a number of regional economic communities (RECs) have recognised the need to support pastoralists’ mobility.141 With a forecast of precipitation below average for the rainy season from March to May 2017, their free movement across borders will be vital to their ability to survive the current crisis, recover their losses and build their resilience to future disaster and displacement risk.142 ON THE GRID: Global internal displacement in 2016 41