“We can't sleep because our rooms are flooded. In addition, this place is full of snakes and mosquitoes and the water is polluted by sewers and other filth,” complains Boley Ma'alin Abikar, an 80-year-old blind woman who lives with two children and several grandchildren, most of whom are her People who also have some kind of disability in the Al Barako displaced persons camp on the outskirts of the city of Baidoa in southwest Somalia.
When the floods reached the city, everyone who could fled to safer, higher ground, but around 800 families remain trapped in this camp. According to the United Nations, heavy rains began in October and have already claimed at least 118 lives in Somalia and affected more than 2.4 million people. The impact of these rains has been compounded by the climate crisis: the torrential rains, which affected cities, villages, fields and farms, came shortly after the country was hit by the worst drought in 40 years.
Earlier this year, Abikar's family fled more than 200 kilometers from their home in Qoryoley after devastating drought wiped out their herd of 260 cows and goats. They were also on the run from the Islamist group Al Shabab, which controls large parts of the country and to which they had to pay unbearable taxes, particularly due to the effects of the drought. According to UN data based on official Somali figures, these floods have forced 1.2 million people to flee their homes. The total number of displaced people in this African country has already reached four million, or more than 20% of the population.
Abikar's orange scarf is the same color as the orange plastic that covers Al Barako's makeshift shelters, which lie in a crater-shaped depression that more closely resembles a lake. This woman's daughter, Batulo Mohamed Ibrahim, does not leave her wheelchair. His clothes are faded and tattered and his feet are covered in mud. His legs and arms are deformed and he has never been able to speak in his life. Before the floods, her relatives took her to the city where she begged to bring money home. Now she is stuck: it is impossible to push the wheelchair through the thick, heavy mud. Three to four people are needed to transport it over just a few meters. Like this woman, other rural displaced people lived on the alms they received in central Baidoa. Now they are helpless and unable to search for food, drinking water, medicine or other essentials.
Abikar also lives with his son Mohamed Ibrahim, his wife and their ten children, all of whom were born with disabilities. Some are blind, others have special physical needs, and others suffer from mental difficulties. Ibrahim used to find work in the city as a bouncer and cleaner, but now he is unemployed.
“We can't sleep because our rooms are flooded. In addition, this place is full of snakes and mosquitoes and the water is contaminated with sewage and other dirt.”
Boley Ma'alin Abikar, resident of Al Barako displaced persons camp
The longer Abikar's family stays in the camp, the greater the risk of contracting water-borne diseases. According to the United Nations, 384 informal settlements in Somalia have been affected by floods in the Baidoa urban area, displacing more than a quarter of a million people due to war and drought. The UN, which has dubbed these the “floods of the century”, warned of a 70% increase in cholera cases in the country in the last three weeks.
An emergency without funding
As the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza draw international attention and resources, humanitarian organizations are struggling to fund emergency relief efforts in countries like Somalia, which has suffered 35 years of conflict.
The 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia, which requires $2.6 billion (about €2.4 billion) to help the country's 7.6 million most vulnerable people, has been only 42% funded. As of December 3, the United Nations estimated that aid had reached about 820,000 people, about 30% of those affected by the floods. Some areas remain inaccessible because they are controlled by Al Shabab, affected by the conflict or have difficult access conditions, as in the case of the Baidoa camp. To date, no humanitarian organization has provided assistance to these families.
Mustaf Salad Ali, coordinator of care for disabled people in southwest Somalia.NAIMA SAID SALAH
Mustaf Salad Ali, appointed by the government to be responsible for the care of people with disabilities in the southwest of the state, is aware of the difficulties faced by the camp's residents. “Some can neither see nor hear. Others cannot move. Therefore, they cannot escape the terrible floods and do not even know they are coming. The community and the government must work together to help them,” he estimates, admitting that the authorities are overwhelmed with the help they have to provide to those affected by the rains.
His words provide little comfort to people like Ibrahim Ali Jesow, who was born with leg deformities. He cannot leave the camp because his crutches are hopelessly sinking into the mud. Previously, he made a living teaching the Koran to children with disabilities. “I taught about 50 students in a makeshift classroom. His parents paid me what they could. Some gave me two or three euros a month, others paid me nothing,” he remembers. “Now the classroom has been washed away by the floods, so the children can’t learn, I can’t teach and I can’t make a living,” he laments. “We have no water to drink or to wash before praying. “We are at high risk of contracting diseases from the contaminated water we have to drink.” Buying water in the countryside costs 0.5 euros, which most people cannot afford, even if they do could find their way to the points of sale.
Naima Said Salah is a reporter for Bilan, Somalia's first all-female media outlet supported by UNDP and hosted by Dalsan Media Group in Mogadishu.
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