(ERGO) – Since Malyun Jama Nur was imprisoned in Galkayo in January for failing to pay a $9,000 debt, her four young children have dropped out of school and fallen into a situation of poverty and neglect.
Speaking to Radio Ergo from prison, Malyun described the emotional strain of knowing her children are living in hardship without her.
“My family has fallen apart. The children I left behind are not safe and could be harmed at any time. They were evicted from the house and are now staying with relatives. Is that not family destruction?” she said.
“When visitors come to see me, I ask them to take the prison food given to me and deliver it to my children. Sometimes I tell them I would rather the children eat it instead of me.”
Malyun is among scores of low income people whose livelihoods have failed, leading them to be sent to jail due to unpaid debts. Families often face ruin as a result.
In March, Malyun’s children, a girl and three boys, were evicted from the two rented rooms where they had been living and were sent home from school after unpaid fees accumulated.
As Malyun’s husband had died, she was the sole provider for her children.
Malyun is among 63 people imprisoned in Galkayo over unpaid debts, according to local community figures. Most were sole breadwinners for families now facing worsening poverty.
Her eldest daughter, aged 11, had been attending fifth grade. Her eight-year-old son who had just started first grade also dropped out when Malyun failed to pay the $10 a month fees for her children.
“At the beginning of every month, I paid the school fees. But after I was jailed and the money stopped coming, the school told them either bring the fees or leave,” she said.
Her children have been left in the hands of relatives, who are also caring for Malyun’s elderly and dependent mother suffering from mental illness.
Malyun earned a living selling goat meat from a small table in Galkayo market that used to generate $5 to $10 a day. Her earnings covered rent, food, school expenses, and medicine for her mother and children.
Over time, however, her debts accumulated as she bought more and more goats on credit from traders, whilst at the same time her customers were struggling and unable to pay her for the meat they were buying on credit.
“Every three days I had to slaughter another goat because that was how we survived. Nobody was helping me. I had to buy milk and diapers for my mother, milk for the children, food, and school expenses. Everything depended on me. That is how I fell into debt,” Malyun explained.
The traders who supplied her livestock eventually took the case to court, where she was sentenced to prison until she can repay.
Under the system used in Galkayo, people jailed over debt can receive visits from relatives or community members willing to help settle what they owe. But Malyun says she has not found anyone able to free her or rescue her children from their worsening conditions.
Similar hardship is facing the family of Issa Abdilkadir Abdulle, another prisoner being held over unpaid compensation linked to an accidental injury case.
Issa, a displaced labourer and father of eight, was ordered to pay compensation equivalent to $2,100 after a man was injured last year by a handcart he was operating.
Unable to raise the money or provide the three camels required as compensation, he has remained in prison while his family struggles in a Galkayo internal displacement camp.
“I was the only one working. My wife calls me crying and says there is no milk for the baby. She asks if I have managed to find help anywhere. But I tell her I have nothing because I am the one imprisoned,” Issa told Radio Ergo.
For the first two months after his arrest, Issa’s family survived on food bought on credit from a small shop in the camp. But shopkeepers eventually stopped extending further debt after the unpaid amount reached $250.
“We became unwanted because of the debt,” he said. “If you take goods today, they expect payment tomorrow. When they don’t receive it, they refuse to give you more.”
The family now survives on occasional cooked meals or small food donations from neighbours.
The chairperson of the Galkayo Women’s Association, Maymun Alinoor Gayfane, said local women’s groups had mobilised community contributions to help free some women imprisoned over debt.
Three women were released in February and March after the association paid debts of $25,000, $6,000, and $3,000 respectively.
“We selected women who were extremely poor and had no assets or support. We focused on vulnerable people who truly needed help,” Maymun told Radio Ergo.
She added that many of the imprisoned debtors were victims of worsening economic hardship, inflation, and the collapse of small businesses that poor families rely on for survival.
