Farming families whose crops and property were washed away by recent floods have moved to IDP camps on the outskirts of Bardere town in Gedo region.
Bardere district administration’s development and humanitarian affairs head, Mohamed Hussein, said floods on 8 November had left many farmers destitute.
He said 400 families had arrived in Habaal-Addey camp in Bardere town, which was already home to 520 families. Another 78 farming families had moved to Buulo-kurmaan camp.
These families relied on produce from their farms located along the banks of the river Juba. Others worked on local farms as casual labourers.
“They have moved to the IDP camps in the hope of getting assistance from aid agencies serving in the areas,” said Mohamed Hussein. However, no help had been forthcoming yet.
He said there were five IDP camps in Bardere with a population of 3,500 families.
Mohamed Ali was displaced from Mataano location, 15 km from Bardere town, and moved to Habaal-Addey IDP camp with his family of 11. He told Radio Ergo he lost nine hectares of planted farmland.
“My farm along with my generator I used for irrigation and all our fuel stocks have all been washed away by the flood water,” he said. “We are now living in the camps without shelter, mosquito nets, food or clean water.”
Makaay Nurow, an elderly woman, said she used to earn her living of around 100,000 Somali shillings a day doing farm work. Now she did not know how she could survive.
A member of the farmers’ association of Bardere, Abdullahi Ali Hussein, estimated that farmers would not be able to return to their land until January 2016 at the earliest.
“Farmers need to be assisted with new seedlings and land preparation equipment. Irrigation canals have to be worked on as they have all been washed away by the floods,” he said.
