Abudwak

Abudwak lies in western Galgaduud near the Ethiopian border, on the caravan lines that have always tied central Somalia to the Somali-inhabited regions of eastern Ethiopia. Cross-border trade — livestock going one way, goods and khat coming the other — is the town's economic engine.

The district is known for the size and organisation of its diaspora, whose remittances and community funds have built schools, water systems, and health facilities at a pace few towns in the region can match. Telephone and money-transfer offices line the main street, the visible plumbing of that long-distance economy.

Like all of Galgaduud, Abudwak's surrounding countryside lives by the camel and the rains; in drought years the town swells with pastoralist families seeking water, work, and help.