Amina Abdullahi Jama was among the first groups of Somali refugees to flee the conflict in Yemen in a small boat from the port of Mukalla.
In the confusion and haste to get out, she was unable to gather her family together before escaping. Now in Bosasso, she looks out to sea wondering where her children are and how she can reunite with them.
“I broke up with their father two years ago and I went to work in Alqayda town while my children were in San’aa,” she told Radio Ergo’s local reporter, who visited a group of around 75 returnees camped out in a ministry of agriculture building in Bosasso.
Amina stated that she has seven children, aged between two and 15. “I was preparing to visit them when the offensive started, but I could not manage to travel at that time as I had no money because I hadn’t got my salary that month yet…then, unfortunately, all the roads were sealed off and suddenly I was forced to flee for my life,” she said.
According to UNHCR, 2,772 people have so far arrived in Bosasso and Berbera from Yemen.
Many of them say they have been separated from family members and need help finding them.
Safia Ahmed, 50, is also camping in the Bosasso agriculture ministry building. She told Radio Ergo’s reporter she had lived in Yemen for 12 years. When the fighting erupted, like many Somalis, she was working away from her children and does not know where they are now.
“I have three children and I was working to support them in a hotel in Sheikh in the city of Aden. I heard that two of my children had reached the port of Mukalla but I am yet to confirm that. The conflict separated us and we couldn’t find each other. There were food and water shortages where I was and everything was coming to a standstill as the bombings were so heavy,” she said.
Another returned, Hawo Ibrahim, also left Yemen alone, hoping of course to be able to reunite with her three children and family. She had been working as a house maid for a Yemeni family in the city, who told her they could no longer afford to pay her as the country imploded into chaos.
Life was becoming very difficult as food and cooking gas supplies were cut off. “I decided to flee back to Somalia leaving my husband and children behind in Al-Kharaz refugee camp. I am now in Bosasso but I am worried for them. I may decide to go back and look for them anytime,” Hawo said.
Amina feels lucky because she believes her children are safe for the time being, as a generous local resident agreed to give her children refuge in Mukalla. Still, she misses them so much that she keeps thinking of “jumping back into the sea” to go and find them.
Meanwhile, she confirmed she and other returnees had received some financial assistance from the Puntland ministry of interior and a local youth group in Bosasso.
