Hundreds of displaced families living in camps outside Mogadishu are unable to access essential health care due to a lack of health workers and services around the camps.
Habibo Aden, an IDP mother, said four of her children were suffering from pertussis [whooping cough]and measles but could not get any medical help. “There is no medical centre in or near our camps and we can only get medical attention in Mogadishu at our own cost,” Aden told Radio Ergo’s reporter in Mogadishu.
She added that she could not afford to take her children into Mogadishu. “I am already struggling with their food and I have no money for their medical treatment,” she said. About 5,000 people displaced from various parts of the country are living in several camps on the outskirts of the city. Aid agencies rarely operate access this area for security reasons.
Most of the children in the camps suffer from treatable diseases without any treatment, according to an elder, Aliyow Hassan. “When someone is sick we wait to see him either recovering or dying in bed. There’s nothing else we could do here,” Hassan told Radio Ergo.
