Khadra Abdi Igal, a mother of four and businesswoman in Lasanod, never thought that her family would be forced into living in squalor in an internal displacement camp in another region.

Her family is now in a makeshift shelter in Sool IDP camp, two kilometres east of Galkayo town. It is a harsh comedown from living in their own comfortable four-room house in Lasanod.

The children find it hard to stand the cold. When it rains, she often asks her neighbours living in an iron sheet house to allow her children to shelter there.

“We are not locals here and can’t get work here. We depend on the camp leaders and local people to collect us some food from other locals. Some people bring us flour, some bring sugar, some bring pasta,” Khadra said.

They are eking out the 40 kgs of food they were given by local people and cooking just once a day. She is worried how they will cope when the food runs out in about 10 days’ time.

Khadra says she used to earn $10-15 a day from her business and paid $21 a month to keep three of her children in Koranic school.

“We used to make a good living and my husband was also working so our life was stable. But now we are displaced and poor and not with people we know. When we were home we were satisfied with our lives,” she said dejectedly.

Khadra moved with the children when the conflict became intense, although her husband stayed behind in Lasanod to protect their house and property.

They are among 150 families joining this camp since April, when conflict in Somaliland’s Lasanod intensified. Most are living in shacks made of cardboard and pieces of clothing.

Some, like Ayni Ali Mohamed, a mother of two, escaped in fear without even a cooking pot.

“We don’t have anywhere to go when it rains, and we don’t have food. The situation is very difficult. For everyone who has been displaced, if food is cooked tonight, it will not be cooked in the morning. Before we cooked three times a day. Now, we only cook once if we find some food,” she told Radio Ergo.

Ayni was given 16 kgs of flour, rice and sugar by well-wishers when she arrived in the camp in April. Heavy rain on 27 April saturated their flimsy shelter, making her feel desperate for the children’s wellbeing.

They lived in their own three-room house in Lasanod, where she ran a vegetable stall that brought in $10 a day. She supported her daughter and two of her siblings in Koranic school.

“We were self-employed people with a small stall in the city. We were satisfied with our lives and didn’t need help from anyone. We consumed whatever Allah gave us, but the place is now torn apart by torn and we ran for our lives,” Ayni said.

The leader of Sool camp, Sahro Hassan Ali, told Radio Ergo that the families from Lasanod consist of mostly women, children, and the elderly, who have no relatives in Galkayo. Whilst local people have helped out, the families in the camp need much more aid.

“We helped these people by building huts and giving a little food that we collected. Sometimes we try to get them water, but there is nothing else they have received,” she said.

Source: Radio Ergo