(ERGO) – Residents of Marka in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region are trickling home to rebuild their shattered lives after a peace deal brought an end to deadly clan clashes killing and displacing many last year.
However, the returnees face huge challenges due to the extent of destruction to property. The existing social services such as schools and medical facilities do not have the capacity to cater for the new population.
Elders from both sides and authorities struck a peace agreement which ended fighting that broke out in February 2017. The clashes between the two communities in Marka, 100 km southwest of Mogadishu, have persisted for years.
According to the district commissioner Hassan Omar, in the past week378 families have returned to the town. He said they were struggling to cope.
“The general hospital which is operating currently is under-staffed as the nurses and doctors fled when fighting broke out in the town. The hospital is also lacking medical supplies. Out of
The 16 primary schools only four have reopened since the peace agreement was signed,” the commission explained.
Marka’s two universities and four secondary schools have not yet reopened.
People also have to trek long distances outside the town to get water, as water points and market places were damaged or destroyed and must be repaired.
Mohamed MohamudOsoble, who fled in 2016, has returned to the town to face numerous problems in restoring his home and livelihood.
“I welcome the peace agreement reached by the clans. When I came back, part of my four- bedroom house had collapsed, the other part was hosting a colony of bats and it was not fit for living. But since I had no other alternative, I tried to clean it up and now I am living here,” he said. “I would have restarted my shop business if I had some capital. Currently, I manage the monthly consumption of the family with $100 I get from a relative abroad.”
According to Osoble, about 50 of his neighbours have returned home.
Gashan Mahdi Idishas come back to Bulo-Jan. He was fortunate that his house was some distance away from the fighting.
“I did not flee my home because my house was just far from the battlefield. But still, the clashes had an impact on my family because the clothing shop I had before the conflict has closed down due lack of customers,” he explained.
