Nearly 250 families who joined 14 IDP camps on the outskirts of Afmadow, Lower Juba, face food shortage and lack of proper shelters.

These families fled fearing an outbreak of conflict between the Somali government and Al-Shabab militia in Jana-Abdalle, Guba Kibir, Anjeel, Miido and Harbole villages in Lower Juba.

Nimo Ibrahim Ahmed and her seven children were displaced from Miido village, 25 kilometres from Afmadow. They are sharing a shack and a meal a day with their relatives, who were already living in one of the IDP camps.

Nimo, a widow, used to depend on her five-hectare farm, where she was hoping to reap her harvest although she abandoned it for her safety.

Adan Sheikh Abdi Ali, who fled from Saatu village 60 kilometres from Afmadow, said the food donated by locals quickly ran out and he had no source of income.

He and his wife and 10 children joined Abaq-banbow camp on 1 February.

“We get water delivered by water truckers, but we don’t get anything else. We don’t have a proper house or other basic needs,” he complained.

Adan, also a farmer, had hoped to reap the produce from his 10–hectare farm that he had to abandon due to fears for their safety.

The head of Jubaland authority’s IDP support committee, Ahmad Salad Hassan, said they have registered the families so that they can share the information with aid organisations.

The committee along with local youth, women and religious clerics have been collecting donations of rice, flour, sugar, and cooking in the neighbourhoods, mosques and markets to give to the displaced families.

“These people don’t have blankets to protect them from the cold nights. Some of them haven’t cooked a meal for two or three days and they are in a desperate situation,” he said.

He also noted that the number of IDPs continues to grow.

Source: Radio Ergo