(ERGO) – Pregnant and weighed down with water containers, food, and her youngest children, Somali mother Habibo Ali Isaq walked 200 kilometres from her drought-stricken home village in Burdhuhunle, Bakool, hoping to find help in a displacement camp in the neighbouring region of Gedo.
Habibo, 46, had no means of transport so she and her six children walked the entire journey over 14 days, sleeping wherever they had reached by dusk each day.
She had carried three containers of water and their meagre food supplies from home and when that ran out, she explained their desperate situation to people along the way who gave them something.
The burden of the heavy household utensils and her young children on her back, and the exertion of the long hot journey, caused her to lose her three-month pregnancy on the road heading towards Ajuran IDP camp in Luq district.
“I had a miscarriage because I was carrying food, water and of course the unborn baby. We were walking for 14 days. For the last five days I was bleeding and when we reached the camp, I couldn’t afford medical bills. I am still feeling pain, I am still bleeding,” Habibo explained to Radio Ergo’s Gedo reporter.
“I am still in pain. Sometimes I am unable to sleep at night as I can’t afford any medicine. I have back pains and I would go to a pharmacy but I don’t have the money.”
She and the children separated from her husband, who set off with their remaining 21 goats and four cows hoping to find water and pasture. They lost the rest of their livestock in Burduhunle.
As if the ordeal was not enough, Habibo is having to sleep rough under trees with her children, whilst depending on any food they get from fellow displaced families also suffering hardship. In her current state of health, she cannot take on any work. The miscarriage came on top of months of poor nutrition back home in the village.
“My children are young and none of them can earn a living for us. We depend on the people – we get some sugar or a kilo of rice from people and that is how we live. I would want to wash clothes or collect firewood to sell but I just can’t.”
Ajuran IDP camp has no health services. According to the camp leaders, there are 34 women who have suffered miscarriages since April. They have visited them and found that none has received any medical attention and that they lack adequate food.
Salado Muminow, a mother of four, arrived in the camp towards the end of August. She lost her two-month pregnancy after a strenuous journey with nothing to eat for three days.
“I was walking for seven days, and that’s how I lost my pregnancy. My two-month baby old died because of hunger and the heavy things we were carrying. Whenever we go to medical centres, they tell you to buy medicines and we don’t have money. I am still feeling pain around my waist and back,” she said.
Last year, the camp leaders reported 37 women suffering miscarriages whilst lugging water on their backs from the river. None of them was able to receive any medical attention in the camp.
