(ERGO) – Nurto Ahmed Nur, a displaced mother of six living in a camp in Dusamareb, central Somalia, often feels too weak even to breastfeed her youngest child.
“I’m a mother and my child is crying yet I have nothing for them – and I’m also hungry myself,” Nurto told Radio Ergo.
“Sometimes we go hungry for three or four consecutive nights, the children and all of us. Often when I’m hungry I still have to breastfeed the baby and that makes me get hungrier and the child gets sick with diarrhoea and vomiting.”
Most families in Shabelle camp, on the outskirts of Dusamareb in Galmudug, are uncertain when they will eat their next meal.
Humanitarian organisations stopped the $70 monthly aid cards for families in the camp this year. This coincided with changes in the job market that have particularly affected the hardworking displaced women income earners.
Nurto had been making $5 to $7 a day for the past four years doing laundry jobs for households in town.
But as more better off families in town are now using washing machine services run by local companies, she is now knocking on doors begging for scraps of food instead of asking for washing jobs.
It’s the worst year they are facing in the camp, as her husband is also out of the work he used to get on construction sites. The town has seen a decline in housing construction in the past few months. Both of them are now at home and have with no other skills to offer in the workplace.
There is a water shortage in the camp and women have to walk far to find and carry water on their backs. Local people have also become tired of being asked to give food and water handouts to the IDPs.
“The people in the neighbourhoods where I used to get water have become annoyed with me. They told me, ‘You have relied too much on us. Find a way to provide for yourselves.’ A barrel of water costs two and a half dollars, and a jerrycan costs 25 cents,” Nurto said.
Her family was displaced from Elbur in Galgadud region in 2021, when severe drought destroyed their three-hectare farm. They came to the camp for a better life.
She would like to return to their land, but the ongoing fighting between the government and Al-Shabaab in that area makes it too dangerous. The camp has no school, although all her children apart from the baby are of school age, and they cannot afford town schools where fees range from $10 to $15 per child.
Fartun Ahmed Mohamed, a mother of 13, has also been forced to beg in the town where she used to go to get laundry jobs.
When she doesn’t find anything, she and her children, the youngest of whom is two, all sleep hungry.
“My family has been without food for the past few days. I haven’t found anything – nothing comes in from anywhere. There is no food at home. I owe money for water and I was told to pay it because the amount has become big. I beg from the neighbours because there is no well in our camp and I cannot afford to buy water,” Fartun said.
Their hut made of palm fronds collapsed in recent rainfall. The children are now sleeping in a small shelter built from cloth and cartons provided by fellow camp residents.
Fartun can’t find any other work. Her husband, an elderly man with high blood pressure, has not worked for five years and is confined to home.
“The children and I are neglected together – we suffer together,” she said. “There is a big problem here. I used to wash and iron clothes for people earning 10, 15, or sometimes 20 dollars, but now I don’t have any work.”
Nine of her children were withdrawn from school in May when their fee arrears reached $290 over four months.
Fartun’s family came to the camp six years ago after drought ruined their five-hectare farm on the outskirts of Kismayo. Relatives who had arrived earlier in Shabelle camp advised her to come as aid was available. This year, however, all aid ceased.
She wants to return to her farm but can’t afford the cost of travel, which would be at least $300 for such a large family.
The chairman of Shabelle camp, Mohamed Khadar Khamis, told Radio Ergo that 250 families living there were in extremely poor condition without income or aid.
“No family is able to cook two meals a day,” he said. “We have shared this situation with the Galmudug administration and humanitarian organisations working in the region. But so far, we have received no response,” Mohamed said.
