Makeshift shelters that are home to displaced Somalis in Mogadishu. |
MOGADISHU, 14 Jul 2006 (IRIN) – Adow Abdille, who fled his makeshift shelter in south Mogadishu during the recent fighting, returned home on Wednesday ready to start fending for his family again.
“I fled on Sunday morning when the fighting had just started, I am glad it’s over, I can now continue selling my ground nuts in order to feed my family,” said Abdille near the Bulhan camp for displaced people across K5 junction where some of the heavy clashes occurred. “My family arrived a few minutes before me, I am happy to be home at long last.”
Dozens died when soldiers fighting for the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) clashed with militiamen loyal to two faction leaders on 9 and 10 July. Hundreds of others were wounded in the two-day battle as the two militias exchanged gunfire, mortars and artillery shells in the midst of settlements and residential areas.
“It will cost me less to get the ground nuts from Bakara market now that the road linking X control and the market via Tarbuunka is functioning. This is a really positive [action by] the Islamic courts; they should now ensure we do our business peacefully,” Abdille, a 45-year-old father of three said. He fled to the Somali capital from Buale [in the southern Juba Valley area] several years ago.
Mogadishu is already home to 250,000 internally displaced persons, most of whom live in makeshift shelters and rundown former government buildings. They are poor, do not have stable jobs and rarely receive humanitarian assistance.
Anab Ahmed, who fled Qoriyolay in Lower Shabelle region 14 years ago, has been living for the past five years with her four children at the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, which was already bullet-strewn and on Sunday was struck by an anti-aircraft gun during the skirmishes. Nobody was hurt.
“I have just arrived and have nothing to cook,” she said. “We ran to Towfiq with my children, it was the fourth time [we fled] this year, all we want is peace now to enable us live in our houses.”
Somalia has been at war since 1991 when former strongman Mohammad Siad Barre was ousted by clan warlords. The civil war has killed thousands and left millions displaced.
‘Nowhere to run to’
Risala Khalif’s son narrowly escaped death when an anti-tank shell hit her house near Abdille’s camp. “He was sleeping when the shell struck, fortunately he escaped unhurt but all our utensils were burnt…We have nothing to cook with, it is really hard for us,” said the 40-year-old mother of 12 who did not flee her house because of the intense gunfire.
Already without much to eat and reluctant to go back home, citing political oppression, Zanzibari refugees living in a bullet-scarred former government building in south Mogadishu were caught in the middle of heavy exchange between the two feuding militias.
“The Somalis fled to their relatives but we had nowhere to run to,” said their leader Ghulam Abdulrahman, “We were sandwiched in the middle, heavy trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns were firing from our gate targeting their rivals, who were also shooting from the other side of our building…It was really terrible, two of our colleagues were injured, one of them seriously.”
Speaking from his hospital bed, Mohamed Khatibu, one of the injured Zanzibari refugees, told IRIN he was hit in the leg by shrapnel.
“A [piece of shrapnel] hit my left leg, I cried out for help because I was bleeding profusely,” said Khatibu, who bakes bread in Sobe for a living. “Islamic militia brought me to Banadir hospital where the leg was amputated. I’m looking forward to going back to work.”
[See also IRIN’s speacial page on Somalia]
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Source: IRIN, July 14, 2006
