Adan Abdi Ali sits amid the few belongings he managed to carry from the Baidoa displacement camp after being forced to leave/Abdulahi Mohamed/Ergo
More than 160 displaced families have been forcibly evicted from Iraroog camp in Baidoa by landowners who had originally invited them to settle there, leaving residents without livelihoods, shelter or reliable access to essential services.
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The families received no warning before they were ordered to leave, giving them no time to prepare or collect their possessions. Iraroog had offered free water, healthcare and education.
Abdirahman Ali Isaaq lost the small shop where he sold vegetables and other goods, a business that brought in $3 to $5 a day and helped support his family of nine.
“The businesses we relied on have been destroyed. We used to have three meals a day, but now even one meal is difficult. We are facing hardship and distress,” he said.
Abdirahman launched the shop with $400 he had saved from assistance provided through an Islamic Relief programme that ended three years ago. The business held stock worth about $300, but he now lacks the money needed to reopen it.
Five of his children had been enrolled in schools at the camp. They no longer have access to education.
“We had everything we needed, including food and education, but now we are facing many hardships. We do not even have the means to build shelter,” he said.
The family was forced to abandon the two huts it had occupied for five years. Their cooking utensils and bedding were lost or damaged, and they left behind the worn plastic sheets that had served as shelter because they could not carry them.
They now face the heat and cold in the open and struggle to obtain water. Abdirahman said they sometimes beg for supplies because they cannot pay the $0.25 needed to buy 20 litres from a private well.
The family reached Baidoa in 2022 after fleeing Berdale district in Bay region, where drought destroyed their six-hectare farm.
Aadan Abdi Ali, another resident forced out of the camp, said his family of 10 had been left feeling hopeless and that he had been unable to find work. His youngest child is two, and the children often go to sleep hungry. Neighbours and relatives sometimes provide up to a kilogram of food or $1 to help prepare a meal.
“The biggest problems we are facing are shelter, water and food. We used to prepare three meals a day, but now even one meal is difficult. We have nothing here and no means to start anything. We have been living outside since July. Our situation is extremely difficult,” he said.
Aadan’s vegetable stall, which earned as much as $5 a day, was destroyed. He had established it using $150 in loans and support from relatives, and its value had grown to nearly $500. He bought fresh vegetables for the stall just one day before the eviction.
The produce spoiled after he was left with nowhere to sell it and it remained exposed to the sun. He still owes suppliers more than $200.
“I have many outstanding debts from the place we left. I have searched for work but have been unable to find any. These hardships are causing us immense distress,” he said.
Aadan, 44, said he had no alternative income or other support. Aid agencies have stopped assisting him, while relatives in rural areas are unable to help because poor rainfall has damaged their farms and weakened their livestock.
He had spent four years in Iraroog camp, where five of his children attended the free primary school. He cannot afford the $5 fee charged per child at nearby private schools.
His family fled Qansahdheere district in Bay region in 2023 after a lack of water destroyed the latest crops on his four-hectare farm. Disease and drought killed 27 of the family’s goats and cattle.
Salmo Hassan Mohamed, chairwoman of Iraroog camp, said the families had lived on the land without charge for seven years and were not warned that it was being sold.
“More than 160 displaced families are staying in an open area with nothing and have no access to basic services,” she said. “We appeal to humanitarian organisations, the Somali government and the South West State administration to provide urgent assistance and help save their lives.”
The eviction also forced the closure of a health centre that offered free maternal care, vaccinations and medicines. More than 300 children from Iraroog and nearby areas are now out of school, according to the camp chairwoman. The water reservoirs used by the families were removed as well.
