Living in harsh conditions in the sun-drenched camps outside Mogadishu, hundreds of Somali refugees have been facing difficult humanitarian situations since they left their homes after experiencing waves of violence between the government troops and the insurgents.
Desperate to survive, many of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled the Somali capital are sharing destitute adjacent camps void of humanitarian aids.
Elasha is an IDPs camp where thousands of IDPs who fled from Mogadishu are currently living with thousands arriving daily due to the continued violence in the city.
It was just a short walk through the newly-built makeshift shelters which IDPs found themselves living in, and you would figure out how life could be severe there.
Sitting in a constricted tent made of shredded garments and plastic sheeting, with a few
cooking pots and wearing ragged clothes, Halima Nur, 38 years old a mother of four, showed me a photo which she was sadly looking at, she explained: “This is my husband Ahmed. He had been killed due to shell attack in Mogadishu, Ahmed was the only breadwinner of our family. He had left me and my children in a wretched condition without sustenance.”
As she recalled her late husband, she shrilled and complained “who will help me now? .
“My children only have one or two rare meals sporadically from neighbors or relatives”, Halima added.
She looked down to her children who were crying for milk, and with tears in her eyes said: “I don’t know how my children will survive a malnourished life.”
She tried to earn money to feed her children by working as a launderer; washing clothes for some neighboring refugee families. It’s the only thing she can do, but unfortunately, still she is unable to fulfill her children’s needs as such work is hard to get.
“I lost everything because of violence: my husband, my children, and even my life.” she said with tears and unclear words..
Left to an Uncertain Life
Halima is like hundreds of thousands of other refugees, living in a horrible situation and can not foretell the future of her family within the current circumstances.
The situation inside the overcrowded camps is disastrous; refugees are suffering from a very sharp shortage in water; food, shelter, and medical supplies. Those needs are rapidly increasing as the migrants numbers increase. Among those, many small children and injured people who are in need for intensive health care.
The queuing families are mostly poor and lacked most of the normal signs of life, and development, even before they arrived.
One of their worst times is during the rainy season as water penetrates their weak huts causing severe chills to the needy underfed children as many of the temporary shelters have been washed away.
For now though, the immediate humanitarian needs are huge, some aid agencies were coping to provide emergency aids, but in the recent months it became too difficult, due to insecurity and the endless killing of aid workers.
“As for aid workers, we work under really horrible circumstances; sometimes we have to stop work due to the insecure conditions” said a Somali aid worker, who prefers not to mention his name.
He added: “It’s a worrying situation. We sometimes use other NGOs for distributing aid”.
Even when the aid workers want to distribute food, they are very aware of the dangers they are facing.
Young people the most vulnerable to violence in Somalia are starving and suffering to death. Their fathers or breadwinners stopped working as most of their employers escaped the city due to security reasons.
The civilians, aid workers (journalists included), all have become subject to the dominant violence in Somalia. Victims of violence are swarming into hospitals. Some are losing their important organs. Others die everyday from wounds while others howl in agony, desperate to receive proper treatment. According to the doctors, medical supplies are desperately needed throughout hospitals.
Life in Mogadishu is still full of fear and the streets are empty. Only combatants in trenches could be seen as everybody is in doubt about the future.
“Walking day or night is the same now, you will always feel insecure” a Wardhigley District, Mogadishu resident Ibrahim Ahmed told IOL.
Nearly all of the city’s residents predict the return of Ethiopian troops after the Somali government had urged the neighboring countries to intervene. With Ethiopian troops in the country, there is no safe place.
(Many residents who didn’t flee due to poor transportation died in violence after mortars landed on their houses or killed by stray bullets. The escapees of the capital have also faced major difficulties when they tried to leave, with most seeking rides on minibuses with high charge.)
Due to the inferior situation, estimates of casualties are still unknown, but for sure they are in the thousands. In general, I can assure that the numbers are expected to double unless any action is taken to end the current crisis in Somalia.
Source: IslamOnline
