AKIPRESS.COM - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched an emergency appeal today for US$835,000 to assist 25,500 vulnerable Mongolian herders who are at risk of losing their livestock and livelihoods due to extreme winter conditions known as dzud.

Dzud is a consequence of a summer drought and extreme overgrazing leading to insufficient hay for winter grazing. This, coupled with heavy snows and freezing temperatures is causing large numbers of animals to die from starvation. More than 80,000 herder families (around 400,000 people) in the northern and western part of the country are at risk with millions of livestock facing starvation in the coming weeks and months.

In the worst affected districts, sheep and other livestock have already started dying from cold and starvation in their thousands. Many herders are trying to sell their animals while they are still alive but the oversupply of livestock has resulted in very low market prices which have particularly serious consequences for vulnerable families with fewer animals to sell. As a result many poor herders lack the cash they need to buy essential food, warm clothes, and coal for heating.

Impassable roads covered with thick snow and ice also make it impossible for many herders to reach urban settlements where they can receive important services such as medical care or purchase necessities for basic sustenance. According to the Mongolian Ministry of Food and Agriculture, both the weather situation and the grazing conditions are worse than they were in the dzud of 2009-2010, when millions of animals died.

Tens of thousands of households lost all or more than half of their animals and many of these families were forced to move to slum areas on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar and other urban centers. Large scale migration to the cities are resulting from loss of livelihood among herders has magnified urban social problems such as unemployment, crime, alcoholism, domestic violence and extreme poverty.

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Mongolia's livestock in danger after drought and harsh winter