BAIDOA, Somalia – Sahro Mohamed Ali, a mother of seven, once thrived in the rural village of Sagle nestled in Bakool, Somalia. Her life was anchored in livestock rearing and the invasive art of charcoal production, which saw her chopping trees to make ends meet.
But the story took a darker turn, as relentless droughts, fueled by the unforgiving march of climate change, compounded with Al-Shabaab’s clutches, forced families like Sahro’s to flee their homesteads. They sought refuge in an IDP camp in Baidoa, South West State’s interim capital.
For now, the camp is their sanctuary.
Rural communities, particularly women with children, have borne the brunt of climate change’s fury, with parched farmlands and depleted livestock herds.
These adversities have plunged many into dire poverty and hardship.
Sahro, as her family’s lone breadwinner, has ventured into jobs not typically associated with women in Somalia. She’s found her place among construction workers, laboring to secure bare necessities.
“The harsh truth hits you when you arrive at these camps,” Sahro confides. “There’s no steady aid flow, just the daily grind of city jobs to stave off hunger.”
Every dawn finds Sahro amidst a construction crew, maneuvering hefty stones and cement bags.
With her sheer grit, she rakes in a modest three dollars, ably sustaining her children’s hunger. As night descends, she returns to her makeshift abode in the camp, where her children’s eager eyes await the meal her hard toil has provided.
PHOTO: Somalia counts among nations severely battered by the climate crisis. | PHOTO/ Courtesy/ UN.
Disaster-stricken Nation
As per the United Nations’ figures, close to four million people are rendered internally displaced within Somalia by 2024, escaping conflict, insecurity, drought, and hydrological havoc.
Regions like Baay, Bakool, and the Shabelle River valleys, once the nation’s grain storerooms, now face stark hunger precipitated by environmental ruin.
For folks like Sahro, displacement morphs from an interim nuisance to a relentless fight in camps sorely lacking fundamental services such as healthcare and schooling.
These camps’ transitory essence thrusts women and children into dire vulnerabilities, and the dream of trod-back homeward pathways dims as the twin specters of conflict and climate grow.
Sahro muses on the life she led before displacement, never realizing the catastrophic environmental price of the charcoal trade—a practice that paved the way for deforestation and the ecological disaster ravaging her community today.
PHOTO: The climate upheaval has shredded farmlands and obliterated livestock existence, hitting rural families the hardest.
The collateral damage her once-bountiful surroundings endured dealt a lethal blow to her livestock, ushering Sahro and her children into exile.
For Sahro and myriad others, survival now hinges on adopting urban livelihoods amidst a flickering hope of returning to ancestral lands—a longing that fades with passing days.
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Narrative narrated by Nurto Mohamed from Baidoa. This dispatch forms part of the chronicle on climate change in Somalia, crafted by local scribes honed through a training scheme courtesy of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) alongside Medico International’s patronage.
Edited by: Ali Musa
alimusa@axadletimes.com
Axadle international–Monitoring
