(ERGO) – Families displaced by fighting over farmland in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region are struggling to survive after fleeing their homes with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.
More than 50 families have sought refuge in Buufow-Ba’ad village since early May, according to local authorities. Most are facing acute shortages of food, clean water, and shelter after escaping violence around Beder village.
Among them is Kaltumo Farah Osman, who arrived in Buufow-Ba’ad on 15 May with her five children after fighting between two clan militias forced them to abandon their home.
Kaltumo, a widow, said she spends her days knocking on doors asking residents to share whatever cooked food they can spare. When no one is able to help, she and her children go hungry.
“Our living conditions are extremely difficult. There is hardly any food here. I have five children to care for. Sometimes we find something to eat and sometimes we don’t. Today I have nothing to give them except to let them sleep hungry,” she told Radio Ergo.
She has been raising the children alone since her husband died from diabetes in 2024. They are sheltering under a few pieces of cloth tied together and held up by sticks.
“We have nowhere to sleep. I tied up these pieces of cloth, but if it rains there is nowhere to protect my children from the cold. I hardly sleep at night because I am constantly worried about them,” she said.
The family fled a three-room house toilet in Beder after armed men ordered residents to leave the land at the centre of the dispute. They escaped without any belongings, leaving behind eight goats that had provided them with milk and income. She assumes the animals have either been stolen or killed.
With no money for transport, Kaltumo and her children walked for 11 hours to reach Bufow-Ba’ad. Since arriving, she says they have received no humanitarian assistance.
Having never experienced displacement before, the family has struggled to adapt. Kaltumo has searched unsuccessfully for domestic work in Shalanbood and Marka, but says employers are reluctant to hire someone they do not know, while job opportunities are scarce.
She used to support the family through domestic work and occasional labour on nearby farms. Three of her children have had to drop out of their Koranic school since leaving Beder.
Dahir Abdi Shakur Hussein, who fled Beder at the end of May with his family of seven, faces similar hardship. Every morning he walks about five kilometres to Marka hoping to receive food from local residents. On good days he returns with about one kilogram of rice, which the family stretches over two days.
“We go around asking people in Marka for food. Sometimes someone gives us a kilo of sugar or rice, but many people have very little themselves. Our biggest problems are shelter and water. We have no plastic sheets to protect us if it rains, and we cannot afford to buy water,” Dahir told Radio Ergo.
The family previously relied on seasonal agricultural labour that earned Dahir about $4 a day working on leased farmland. Five of his children have also stopped attending Koranic school since the family fled.
He said residents of Beder were ordinary civilians, not combatants, who depended on farm labour after years of declining agricultural production:
“Fighting over farmland forced us to leave. Armed men told us to leave if we wanted to stay alive. We were not fighters -we were ordinary people trying to earn a living.”
This year Dahir had planned to cultivate a five-hectare family farm he inherited, hoping to rebuild after previous years of water shortages. Those plans ended when conflict forced the family to flee. The uncertainty is shared by many displaced households.
Fadumo Omar Haji, 60, and her family of six are now staying with another family in Buufow-Ba’ad. Her daughter collects firewood from nearby bushland, earning about 50 cents a day that can’t feed everyone.
Fadumo, who has suffered persistent headaches and ringing in her ears for the past two years, said her health has deteriorated further since displacement.
She used to earn $3 to $4 a day selling milk in Janale, about three kilometres from Beder. The family left behind the two-hectare farm that they had hoped to cultivate this season after recovering from previous years of water shortages.
Instead, irrigation canals were cut off by the fighting, ending any prospect of planting crops.
