Many of the hundreds of people forcibly evicted from Aslubta IDP camp on a government-owned property in Mogadishu are calling for help to return to their original homes outside the capital.
Abdiyo Salad, 50, said she was sick and tired of being displaced from various camps in Mogadishu.
“They [eviction team] arrived as we were relaxing at home. This is the third time I have been displaced. I was previously displaced from an IDP camp in Barmudo neighborhood. I originally fled from Gedo region in 2002 after all my livestock were killed in a severe drought back then. I have not even taken a cup of tea this morning as you see me moving out from this camp!” Abdiyo, a mother of four, told Radio Ergo’s local reporter.
Fadumo Sugal, another mother of four, asked for help in being resettled to her home district of Jannale in Lower Shabelle.
“I was washing clothes when the bulldozers arrived to demolish our makeshift house. My husband is a disabled man. We have spent in the last two nights out in the open. I am requesting to be to be returned to my town to resume farming,” she said.
The Aslubta camp occupants said they were given verbal notice to vacate the land by the Benadir regional administration four days prior to the commencement of the camp’s destruction and their eviction on 4 March. The Aslubta camp is located in the former headquarters of the Somali Custodial Corps in Dharkenley district.
Mukhtar Abdikadir, now busy building a new in Barriyow camp on the outskirts of Dharkenley, said they were not given enough time to make plans.
“I lived in the Aslubta camp for a long time. We were given four days only to vacate the camp. It was a very short time, so I had to carry my children and belongings on my back. I work as a porter at Mogadishu seaport,” he said.
Madina Sha’ow, 18, with one child, said she did not want to move to another IDP camp but preferred to go home to Lower Shabelle.
“I am fed up of frequent displacements. I want to be returned back home. Since yesterday when our makeshift house was demolished, I have not eaten anything. My husband who works as a porter at the seaport didn’t manage to go to work because he had to pack up and flee with me,” she said.
The chairperson of Barriyow IDP camp, Asha Abdi Adan, told Radio Ergo around 395 families, mostly women and children, had come to Barriyow from the Aslubta camp over the past three days.
“They have nothing. No shelter, water or food. They are suffering in the open. Therefore we are appealing for urgent humanitarian support for these people,” she said.
Most of the Aslubta camp families have sought refuge in camps in Daynile and Dharkenley districts.
Radio Ergo’s Mogadishu reporter contacted the Benadir administration to ask if they had any plans to support the families evicted from Aslubta camp, but they declined to comment on the issue.
