"We refuse to be confined to a cage," declares nomadic herder Mouloud, asserting the rights and customs of his kin as they graze livestock in Morocco's southern expanses.

But the herders' determination to roam freely has brought them into dispute with crop farmers in the region of Souss.

In the village of Arbaa Sahel, arable farmer Hmad and many of his peers are enraged by herds stomping through wheat and corn fields.

Drought has turned parts of these plateaus arid, and when water becomes scarce, tensions rise -- several clashes have been reported by local media in recent months, as the herders seek pasture.

The battle is also playing out on social networks.

Videos show hooded men presented as nomadic herders, equipped with sticks and swords, attacking villagers.

Some villagers have even uploaded images of what are purported to be camel-mounted attacks on their almond groves.

A few residents have fought back by poisoning water supplies and pastures used by nomads, according to testimony on the ground.

"All these lands that belong to locals, (to) fathers and sons -- they're not grazing areas," said 35-year-old Hmad, clad in leather jacket and trainers.

Exasperated, he points to wheat fields "trampled by sheep" around Arbaa Sahel, near the city of Tiznit.

The region has drawn in nomadic herders for decades -- the verdant landscape a major attraction, compared to arid lands to the east.

- 'Identity' -

There has been a "significant rise in the arrival of flocks, due to drought" over the last couple of years, said nomad Mouloud, sporting sunglasses and a blue turban.

This has stoked tensions.

A local land organisation has recorded 18 cases of aggression by nomadic herders against farmers in Arbaa Sahel alone since December, according to Hassan, who sits on this committee.

But Moroccan authorities say only 15 cases have been recorded in the entire Souss region.

The tensions are not limited to farmland -- there has been a spike in incidents in the region's forests, which cover 1.2 million hectares.

Villagers consider these forests to be their property, in line with ancestral customs.

But the nomadic culture, and the right to roam freely, form "part of the Moroccan identity", contends Mouloud.

Clutching his smart phone, he drinks tea and discusses the recent tensions with his nomadic friends, who erect large tents when they set up camp during their search for pasture.

In one such tent, women prepare food for the group -- a metal tray full of grilled livers and other meat.

Abu Bakr, crouching next to Mouloud and sipping a glass of goat's milk, has dropped his studies in favour of the nomadic lifestyle.

His parents come from a desert zone around 200 kilometres (120 miles) away.

Some herders have this year covered distances of almost 1,000 kilometres, traversing immense swathes of desert, Abu Bakr said.

They move in all-terrain cars to escape the drought -- their tents and herds packed into lorries.

When rains are rare, the nomads are constantly on the move, but their movement is more limited when rain is abundant.

"Schooling of children has pushed nomads to opt for stability," said Abu Bakr.

- 'Freedom to roam' -

For Mustapha Naimi, professor of Sahara studies at the University of Mohamed V in Rabat, "nomadism is very old in Morocco, but it has been reduced in recent decades by urbanisation".

Nomadic roaming by entire families has gradually given way to smaller scale pastoralism by shepherds, Naimi explained.

There are currently some 40,000 nomadic shepherds in the country, according to official statistics.

At the same time, "an increase in the number of herds, with 3.15 million heads of livestock... has contributed to conflict", according to the agriculture ministry.

Land committee member Hassan recalls when shepherds would request "permission from residents" ahead of arriving with flocks.

A law has been adopted by the central government that seeks to regulate nomadic herding and allow "a rational exploitation of vegetation".

The legislation only allows grazing of flocks in certain zones and along pre-defined routes. And nomads have to obtain a permit, or face penalties.

But this law has been rejected by both camps.

"We hold to our freedom to roam," said herder Mouloud.

On the other side of the fence, the farmers' land committee firmly opposes government-designated grazing on land that belongs to local residents.

North Korea seeing worst drought in a century: state media
Seoul (AFP) May 17, 2019 - North Korea is experiencing its worst drought in over a century, official media reported Friday, days after the World Food Programme expressed "very serious concerns" about the situation in the country.

The isolated, impoverished North -- which is under several sets of sanctions over its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes -- has long struggled to feed itself, and suffers chronic food shortages.

It recorded its worst harvest for a decade last year, according to the United Nations, down by 500,000 tonnes as natural disasters combined with its lack of arable land and inefficient agriculture to hit production.

In the year to Wednesday the North received just 56.3 millimetres of rain or snow, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported Friday, the lowest since 1917.

Water was running out in the country's lakes and reservoirs, said the paper, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party, adding: "The ongoing drought is causing a significant effect on the cultivation of wheat, barley, corn, potatoes and beans."

In their most recent estimates, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme (WFP) said about 10.1 million North Koreans -- 40 percent of the population -- were suffering from severe food shortages, a similar figure to recent years.

Hundreds of thousands are believed to have died during a famine in the mid to late 1990s, a period known as the "Arduous March" in the North.

Pyongyang has been frequently condemned by the international community for decades of prioritising the military and its nuclear weapons programme over adequately providing for its people -- an imbalance some critics say the UN's aid programme encourages.

But neighbouring areas are also seeing low rainfall this year.

The South received just 157 mm of rain in the same period this year, less than half the 364 mm in 2018, Seoul's Korea Meteorological Administration said, describing it as a "mild drought".

And according to China's National Meteorological Centre, rainfall in northeast China -- which includes the provinces of Liaoning and Jilin, which border North Korea -- was 27.6 mm in the year to May 9, down 55 percent on 2018.

"We have very serious concerns" about the situation in the North, WFP's executive director David Beasley said during a visit to the South earlier this week.

- Missile launch -

Seoul is currently planning to provide $8 million of food aid to the North as President Moon Jae-in seeks to salvage diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington following the collapse of the Hanoi summit.

But the move is politically controversial after the North sought to raise the pressure by launching several short-range missiles earlier this month, its first such tests for more than a year.

"The issue of food aid should be considered from a humanitarian perspective as fellow Koreans, regardless of the security issues," said South Korea's National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong.

The Unification ministry also said it will give a group of South Korean businessmen permission to visit a joint industrial complex in the North -- once a moneyspinner for Pyongyang -- for the first time since it was shut down in 2016.

It was not immediately clear whether the North would let the trip take place.

International sanctions against Pyongyang technically do not ban humanitarian aid, but strict interpretations of restrictions on banking transactions and imports by the North -- along with a travel ban for American citizens -- have hampered relief groups' activities.

The North previously reported it was experiencing its "worst drought in 100 years" in June 2015.

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North Korea seeing worst drought in a century: state media
Seoul (AFP) May 17, 2019
North Korea is experiencing its worst drought in over a century, official media reported Friday, days after the World Food Programme expressed "very serious concerns" about the situation in the country. The isolated, impoverished North - which is under several sets of sanctions over its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes - has long struggled to feed itself, and suffers chronic food shortages. It recorded its worst harvest for a decade last year, according to the United Nations, do ... read more