(ERGO) – Magalo Kheyr and her four children are living a miserable existence facing hunger and cold after heavy rains and flash flooding forced them out of their home in an internal displacement camp in Baidoa.
“Hunger is our main issue. We’ve also been hit by flu,” Magalo told Radio Ergo’s local reporter. “We don’t have money for medicine, we don’t have money for sugar, we don’t have money for firewood, or even for water. We don’t have bedding or houses. We have nothing!”.
Two of her children, ages three and five, caught flu after being soaked to the skin when floods washed over them whilst they slept in their hut in Bukuray IDP camp, three kilometres outside Baidoa, on the night of 11 October.
She moved her children to nearby Muse camp that lies on higher ground. But neighbours have little to share and they are lucky to get one small meal a day. She can only sit watching the children cough as she has no money to take them for medical treatment.
They lost all their belongings in the floods, including utensils, clothing, plastic sheeting, and a sack of sorghum.
“There is nothing that the water left behind. Some children were carried away by the water although thankfully they were rescued. We couldn’t get anywhere to sleep for the rest of the night,” she said.
Magalo came to the camps in Baidoa in August with her children, leaving her husband behind in Madhatay village in Rabdhure, Bakool, looking after their three-hectare farm that had suffered crop failure due to drought.
“If we cook at night, we heat the remaining food during the day and eat it again. Otherwise all we can do is depend on fellow families. We don’t have any income, we eat whatever we get,” said Magalo.
The floods also forced Fadumo Adan Ahmed, 60, to flee Bukuray camp for Muse camp, with her elderly husband and seven children. They had only been there since July.
“This morning, I only drank half a cup of tea. We get whatever we get from God and the Muslim people. Some days we get food and somedays we stay hungry. That is our biggest issue,” she said.
The floods washed away everything including food stocks, leaving many families in misery.
“The water came suddenly at night and hit us. There was nothing left, although luckily it didn’t carry away people. The little food we had was washed away,” Fadumo said.
With mosquitoes breeding in the stagnant water, they lack bedding and mosquito nets. She has not found the strength to construct a hut so they are just sheltering outside under a tree.
Similarly, Abdi Mohamed Abiikar, his wife and nine children moved to Naharis camp after their house in Bukuray was destroyed. He is worried his children who don’t get regular meals.
“We were settled there in the other camp and earned a living collecting and selling firewood. Food was still a problem, but now we’ve had to move away from that camp and we are not settled since we joined this new camp as the situation is so dire,” he said.
Abdi, who is disabled, said he and his family were pastoralists living in Doodoole village near Baidoa and decided to move to the camps in the city in February after their goats died following prolonged drought.
“I would like to inform the aid organisations, businesspeople, and the general population to come to Naharis camp. We need help before we run into more problems. We are appealing for help!” he stated.
The South West state authorities said they knew of 500 IDP families affected by floods caused by the heavy downpours.
