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| The lives of Somalia’s internally displaced persons
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Leaning against a rusted corrugated iron wall, beads of perspiration cover Hassan’s face as he sits under the hot sun, so typical of Somalia’s semi-arid climate. The wall is a part of Hassan’s makeshift shelter. Although it is midday, Hassan is too preoccupied to notice the unforgiving sun beating down upon him. Hunger, insecurity, and despair combine in his weak body as he sits dejectedly on the sand. His 45 years of life have not prepared him for what he is facing now.
Hassan and his family belong to the hundreds of thousands people that fled Mogadishu last year after Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia. Unable to travel far, Hassan chose to join other internally displaced people living in refugee camps along a road which links Mogadishu to Afgooye.
Today, Hassan is not planning to eat his lunch anytime soon as there is no food to eat. He cannot enter his shelter as there is no room for him. The shelter already houses three children crying of hunger and a mother too exhausted to care. Even if he could squeeze inside the shelter, he does not want to miss his food ration. The last time, he received food aid was a month ago. It is not only him that is waiting for his food ration; the landlord who granted him the right to build the shelter and a group of individuals who pose as the committee of the settlement want to claim a sizeable share of Hassan’s food ration.
Hassan’s sorry plight is typical of the lives of Somalia’s internally displaced persons. Steve Bloomfield of the Independent, a UK-based newspaper, writes, “More than 600,000 people fled Mogadishu last year. Around 200,000 are now living in squalid impromptu refugee camps along a 15km- stretch of road outside the capital. According to UN officials it is the largest concentration of displaced people anywhere in the world. Those same officials now consider Somalia to be the worst humanitarian catastrophe in Africa, eclipsing even Darfur in its sheer.”
According to the UNHCR, there were nearly 400,000 protracted internally displaced persons before Ethiopia’s invasion. And that number skyrocketed when Ethiopian troops entered Mogadishu. Oxfam notes that “Since the beginning of 2007, 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Mogadishu, arriving in areas to which aid agencies often have little or no access. There are now one million internally displaced people in Somalia and approximately two million people in need of humanitarian assistance. In most parts of the country, malnutrition rates are beyond the emergency threshold levels set by the UN.” These people face shortage of food, shelter, and medical supplies. People go nearby bushes to ease themselves since there are not enough latrines in these settlements. Several humanitarian organisations provide humanitarian assistance intermittently to these people. These organisations are overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis.
Since Hassan cannot afford to pay rent, he gives food to his landlord instead. The shelter is located near the Mogadishu/Afgooye road and this is strategically important for food distribution as the trucks delivering food and water cannot access the settlements far from the main road.
Self-appointed committees, known as gatekeepers, claim to be the voice of internally displaced people and campaign for humanitarian assistance on behalf of these vulnerable people. Gatekeepers carry around files containing IDP registration lists and constantly visit humanitarian organisation offices. If they are trusted to distribute food, they carry out symbolic food distribution exercise and sell the rest of the relief. If humanitarian organisations choose to give humanitarian assistance directly to beneficiaries, gatekeepers pressurize beneficiaries to allocate them a certain percentage of the relief.
People in the settlements face other major problems in addition to unscrupulous landlords and ruthless gatekeepers. Such problems include insecurity, checkpoints, soaring inflation, and unemployment.
The road between Mogadhishu and Afgooye does not offer the safety that internally displaced people are looking for but they are too weak and too poor to move again. This road is not only an artery for displaced people and humanitarian organisations but also for Ethiopian troops as they have different army positions along the road. Those who appose the Ethiopian presence in Somalia launch almost daily attacks against Ethiopian forces and Ethiopians shoot anyone who happens to be in their line of vision.
Roadblocks make life difficult for these unfortunate people. The Transitional Federal Government controls roadblocks between Mogadishu and Afgooye. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted in Dec 2007, “Ad hoc roadblocks that charge taxes ranging from US$70 – US$500 to move in and out of Mogadishu have caused huge hindrances to the humanitarian community in accessing vulnerable people. In November, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) reported delays and payment of taxes of up to US$ 475 at eight roadblocks on the Mogadhishu/Afgooye road – a major area of humanitarian operations. The highest number of roadblocks since the beginning of 2007 – 336 in total – was recorded in November.”
Somalia is experiencing runaway inflation. 100 U.S. dollar is equivalent to 3 million Somali Shillings. Soaring inflation is hurting Somalis most of whom live on less than a dollar a day. Hiking prices are more hurtful to internally displaced people due to their extremely disadvantaged position. These vulnerable people are doing their best to stay away from bullets and bombs but cannot avoid buying basic commodities and the need to travel. A passenger needs to pay about half dollar (United Sates) to use a shared minibus service between Mogadishu and Afgooye. At the time of writing, in Mogadishu, 10 kg of pasta is sold for $12 and 50kg of rice costs $45.
Unemployment has become a constant companion of these people. Most of them used to earn their daily bread from the Bakara market before the Ethiopian troops entered Mogadishu. Now escalating insecurity, increasing travel cost, and the destruction of the Bakara market doom internally displaced people to unemployment.
The feeble voices that were coming from Hassan makeshift shutter suddenly became quiet. Such silence made Hassan’s hair stand on end. Fearing the worst, thinking that they had passed away, Hassan poked his head through the door. “They are not dead. They are devoid of energy, could you get us some water,” said his wife touching the youngest child’s scrawny neck.
What a life!
What a situation!
Mohamed Mukhtar
Email: Mohamed323@hotmail.com
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