(ERGO) – Hafido Mukul Mohamed, a mother of eight, was delighted to receive the title deed to a small new house on a plot of land that is now hers in the northern Somali city of Bosasso, after 21 years living in squalid conditions as an internally displaced person, or IDP.
She was among 82 IDP families who received title deeds in Girible, six kilometres east of Bosasso, in June.
“We are now living on clean land with one room and a toilet,” Hafido said. “We still request support to build another room on the empty space, but if that’s not possible we will build it for ourselves when we save up enough money.”
Hafido’s family fled drought-devastated Qallafe town in Ethiopia’s Somali Region in 2000. They lived in a flimsy hut in Toora-Boora settlement, west of Bosasso, paying monthly rent of seven dollars, and juggling the five to seven dollars her husband earned as a porter in a food warehouse to buy food and pay the rent.
She is glad to see the back of Toora-Boora, which was dirty and had no toilets. The children used to defecate in empty milk cans, while the adults used pay toilets.
“There was no place to urinate, we urinated in milk cans which we used to take to the garbage in the morning. Likewise, when we washed clothes we used to dispose of the dirty water on the ground in front of us. We lacked hygiene,” she said.
“Sometimes the landlords verbally abused us when we didn’t have the money to pay the rent. They used to say things like, get off my land you wretched woman! Do you think you own it with me? And when we paid, they used to let us stay.”
Habibo Muse Ali, a displaced mother of 10, also received a house and title deed. Her family fled from Qallafe in 2009, and had been struggling to raise the $15 rent for a two-roomed house in Toora-boora settlement. She washed clothes two days a week earning five dollars a day, while her husband earned seven dollars as a porter at Bosasso port.
“I am living a good life now; we are out of the rent life. We didn’t have a toilet, we used to relieve ourselves in the bushes as the pay toilets charged 6,000 Somali shillings,” she said.
Habibo said their new home and land title gave them a new future. She hopes to build extra rooms on the plot, and will also send more of her children to Koranic school. Although Girible area has no electricity, she hopes they will be connected to electricity or solar power in future.
Bosasso social affairs director, Ali Ahmed Mohamoud, said they aimed to resettle all long-time IDP families in the city. They have resettled 282 families in the last three years.
“We searched for land to resettle the displaced families and when we found it, UNHCR funded the project. The families who received plots have the same rights as the residents of Bosasso now,” he said.
“There are health centres, a police post, and water sources in the area. Of course we can’t say we have satisfied their needs one hundred per cent as they always need further help.”
The resettlement project is being implemented by Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
