13 Events – 19,673 Killed – 13,183,500 Affected.
In general the entire country is drought prone although there are areas that are worse affected than others as from the centre up to the Kenyan border.
Between July 2011 and mid-2012, a severe drought affected the entire East Africa region. Said to be "the worst in 60 years", the drought caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatened the livelihood of 9.5 million people. Many refugees from southern Somalia fled to neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia. Other countries in East Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan and parts of Uganda, were also affected by a food crisis.

Between April and July the average temperature is 40°C and above.

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Tropical cyclone - 1 Event – 30 Killed.

As a result of conflict with Ethiopia and two decades of civil war, Somalia is littered with landmines, explosive remnants of war (ERW), stockpiles of weapons, and ammunition. According to recent reports, mine lying may still be occurring in the southern and central parts of the country and in the disputed Sool and Sanaag regions. The use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by armed groups has compounded the threats facing communities and aid organisations (Source: UNMAS  - http://www.mineaction.org/programmes/somalia)

SEASON PERFORMANCE

Most rural livelihoods are expected to see marked improvements in their food security situation as a result of good seasonal performance of the Gu (main rainy season), according to results of the rapid preliminary assessment carried out by FAO.

Some deterioration of the food security situation is however expected in the agro pastoral areas of Hiraan that experienced poor rainfall as well as the flood affected riverine areas in Jowhar (Middle Shabelle). A slight deterioration is also likely in parts of pastoral livelihoods in Mudug and Bari regions. The deterioration in these areas is attributed to poor performance of Gu rains, which affected pasture availability and crop performance.

Somalia's network of roads is 22,100 km long. As of the year 2000, 2,608 km streets were paved and 19,492 km were unpaved, which almost all the main roads are in a severe and very bad condition due to lack of proper maintenance caused by the prolonged civil war. There are five major roads in the country, which connects the main water corridors to the inland towns. Two are from the port of Mogadishu, one from the northwest port of Berbera, and single routes from both Bossaso and Kismayo. The corridors are entirely served by road since Somalia has no railway line. There are also two routes connecting to Djibouti and Somaliland respectively.
During the dry and rainy seasons most of tarmac roads are accessible.

More details on Tarmac Roads in Somalia: http://www.ezilon.com/maps/africa/somalia-road-maps.html

Roads have deteriorated due to lack of maintenance and intentional damage during civil unrest; some roads remain mined. Transportation therefore relies on impromptu diversions which cause delays and often a reason for increased transport charges during the rainy seasons by claiming roads are impassable and having to detour certain routes.

During those rainy seasons, regional roads (non-tarmac) are subject to slow-go and no-go status. Many of these roads have lorries waiting for the road to dry up in which case waiting time increases and in the case of traffic can cause up to as much as 10 days delays. This is particularly the case also in areas inland bordering with Kenya and Ethiopia where rainfall tends to be higher and roads are often black cotton.

The main rainy season, referred to as the Gu, lasts from April to June.

The Dayr, which is the shortest rainy season, lasts from October to December.

Railway transport in Somalia consisted of the erstwhile Mogadishu-Villabruzzi Railway. The system was built by the authorities in Italian Somaliland during 1910s.
The railway was dismantled in the 1940s by the British during their military occupation of Italian Somaliland, and subsequently never restored.

As of 2012, Somalia has 62 airports. 7 of these have paved runways.
Airports are generally taken care of by local authorities and hence very few strips are currently in use. There have been instances where local authorities have been assisted by donor projects in the area to facilitate access for the programme undertaken. During the dry season most strips are accessible although 90%+ of the strips have not been checked, calibrated or cleared by the civil aviation authorities.
It should be noted that in the event of air cargo droppings, should airstrips be necessary to use, roads to the airstrips are subject to seasonal changes, which would cause delays in distribution.

The four major ports Berbera, Bossaso, Mogadishu, Kismayu are generally not affected during seasonal changes.
Beach Ports such as Merka and El Ma’an though become almost unusable during the monsoon. Merka the most exposed beach port generally closes during June to September and El Ma’an remains open although discharge slows down.

No particular Seasonal Effects on Storage.

No particular Seasonal Effects on Storage.

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