Families fleeing Lasanod battle sleep in Puntland camps, mosques, crowded rooms

Friday February 24, 2023

 

(ERGO) – Maryan Isaq Abdirahman and her three kids escaped the battle in Lasanod, Northern Somalia, on 13 February and are residing now in Jilab camp, three kilometres exterior Garowe in Puntland, with family members who barely have sufficient assets for themselves.

“I live with a woman who is also poor. Today she cooked some flat bread for us. She goes out to the city and comes back at night after selling ice on the street,” reported Maryan.

“We eat flat bread in the morning and stay hungry for the rest of the day. I have some milk for my baby only to last tonight. I will be lucky if I get some powdered milk left for the baby by tomorrow morning.”

Maryan has connected portions of material onto an acacia tree to shelter her kids, along with her three-month-old newborn son. She was fortunate to have carried blankets for the child, however she is anxious he will not be getting sufficient vitamin for his development.

Displaced counting on displaced

The loved ones they may be staying with had been displaced by drought and battle in South West state and have been residing within the camp for 9 years. They have little they could share with others.

Maryan used to earn six {dollars} a day offering house-keeping companies and lived in a two-room dwelling product of timber and iron sheets. However, when the battle erupted, she may solely seize the youngsters and their outfits earlier than fleeing.

“We scrambled onto trucks and moved out with the other families. We asked them to take us, they didn’t even ask us to pay,” she reported.

The Puntland Disaster Relief Committee experiences that 200-300 households a day are arriving in Nugal quarter from the battle zone.

Thousands of households who fled Lasanod because the starting of February are sleeping tough beneath timber or in mosques or IDP camps, devoid of entry to satisfactory meals.

Children sleeping in a mosque

Asha Adan Ali fled to Garowe along with her 12 kids on 9 February and has not managed to contact her husband lower back in Lasanod. She doesn’t know if he’s alive or not.

She was given a small room by nearby well-wishers, who share some meals and cooking utensils with them. However, as they might not all match within the room, 4 of her kids are sleeping in a close-by mosque.

“We are four families living in a house owned by the locals. We depend on the locals for everything, to give us food, clothing, and shelter.

We didn’t think what it would be like when we fled!” she reported.

Asha was working a small store in Lasanod promoting greens and different meals that earned her a secure $12 a day in income. She may pay the youngsters’s college costs, and so they lived in a five-room dwelling.

Now she are not able to even pay the $300 she owes the truck proprietor who transported them out to protection.

“We fled the area while the food was still locked up in the shop. We don’t have any information about the situation there – maybe it has all been looted!” she puzzled.

Relief organizations overwhelmed

The head of Puntland Disaster Relief Committee, Awil Mohamed Hersi, reported they’ve managed to resettle 500 displaced households and assist them with meals.

He admitted that the Puntland administration is overwhelmed by the inflow and acknowledged the assistance nearby persons are giving to the displaced households.

“The people are in large numbers and it’s hard to attend to all of them. Thanks to the people who have shared their homes with the displaced, whoever arrives is getting a house and some food,” he reported.

An IDP monitoring committee set as much as assemble statistics to notify support wants reported that greater than 24,000 households fleeing Lasanod moved to Puntland within the first two weeks of February weeks.