(ERGO) – Rising crime and insecurity are jeopardising the livelihoods of families living in internal displacement camps on the outskirts of Baidoa, southern Somalia.
Residents of one camp in particular, Al-Amin camp, say they feel isolated and unprotected as they go about their daily living.
Jowhara Abdi Adan, who lives in Al-Amin, was attacked and injured in an attack by a group of armed men whilst she was out collecting firewood. Her injuries left her unable to continue washing clothes to support her family of nine. She also fears going out to gather the firewood that she used to sell in the camp.
She was attacked on 5 June by a gang who broke her arm and inflicted deep cuts on her hand whilst she tried to resist handing over her phone to them.
Unable to afford hospital fees, Jowhara allowed her neighbours to fix up her arm using crude methods but she is worried her hand might become paralysed if she doesn’t get medical attention.
“We used to go outside the camp collecting the firewood but now we fear going far because of the threat of attacks day or night,” said Jowhara, whose family was displaced in 2021 from Senilow village in Bay region, after their 100 goats were killed off by drought.
Without the $2-3 a day she made from firewood sales and laundry jobs, Jowhara is living on a meal a day from her relatives. Her youngest son aged three is constantly complaining of hunger.
Women in the camp that lies to the west of the city say that they are most at risk from the roaming gangs and they fear sexual violence and rape.
Malayko Madow Ishaq stopped collecting firewood two months ago after being attacked three times. Each time her phone was stolen. Now, she can’t work to provide for her children due to fear.
“We had an income before but now we don’t. We had food and firewood but now we don’t know where to go. We are old people and we don’t know where to go. We can’t get water either and we are faced with hardships,” she said.
Malayka, a widow, has resorted to begging in the camp. She is lucky to get one meal a day for her seven children. She says women no longer dare to walk the five kilometres to draw water from the nearest water catchment area for fear of attack.
“There is fear even at night while we stay in our shacks. Sometimes we stay up all night until the daylight comes,” she said.
Malayka joined the IDP camps in Baidoa in 2017 after giving up on her farm in Baraka village, 21 kilometres from Baidoa, after her husband died. She said the farm had laid bare for years and needed investment. She had hoped to find better living conditions by moving to the camps.
The Al-Amin camp leader, Said Osman Gabow, is a businessman owning a shop in the camp. He told Radio Ergo that his shop was broken into at night on 9 June and his entire stock of clothes, food and other items were stolen.
“I went home and when I returned I saw items all over the ground. They even took the oil and left only one plastic container of oil from the 10 I had. They took everything else – when I got there I found nothing,” he said.
Said estimates losing goods worth $1,500, including $800 of items he had taken on credit from other stores. The shop supports his family of 12 people with about $4 a day in income. All they have left for now is 10 kgs of rice that he bought on credit from another shop.
According to Said, the gangs are a menace to the people in the area and they haven’t been able to deal with them. Some of them are armed with guns while others carry knives. He said they have shared this information with the local authorities although the issue has not been addressed.
He estimated that 210 women in the camp who find jobs in the city are now preoccupied by their own safety and that of their families, so they stay at home and are unemployed.
