A farmer searches through the remains of his destroyed crops/File Photo/Ergo
More than 1,700 families have abandoned their homes and farmland in Somalia’s southern Lower Shabelle region since early September, driven out by continuing airstrikes and ground battles. Many escaped empty-handed, leaving behind crops nearing harvest and the assets they depended on for survival.
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The displaced families came from villages including Sigale, Malable, Ow-gunji and Bula-alondi. Now on the outskirts of the farming town of Janale, they are struggling to find food, clean water and shelter.
Aweys Abdi Isaaq, a displaced farmer, said his family of 12 had faced severe hardship since arriving on 2 September. They rely on occasional food donations from local farmers, but the supplies are not enough to feed everyone.
“We have neither food nor money to buy it. We survive on whatever people can give us, including maize, vegetables and bananas,” he said. “Sometimes we eat only at night, and during the day we have nothing. We don’t even have utensils for cooking.”
Aweys said hunger was affecting all his children, including his four-year-old youngest child. He has been unable to secure casual work on nearby farms to provide for the family.
Unable to pay $2 for a drum of clean water, the family drinks untreated water from a river. They borrow containers from neighbours and walk about two kilometres to collect it. Aweys said three of his children had developed fevers since their arrival, but the family had no access to medical treatment.
“Water is a major problem. We can’t afford piped water or water delivered by donkey carts. The children are sick, and we can’t buy medicine. Hunger has also left them malnourished,” he said.
The family is sheltering in a cramped structure made from branches and old clothes. Women and children sleep inside, while the men stay outside. During rainfall, they take refuge in a mosque.
Aweys said life had been more stable in Malable, where the family cultivated three hectares. They fled before harvesting their maize after fighting reached the surrounding area.
He had put $450 into the farm and borrowed additional money for household expenses, planning to repay the loans after the harvest. He can no longer reach the farm, yet creditors are still seeking payment.
“I cannot sleep at night because I worry whenever the phone rings, fearing it is someone demanding repayment. We left the maize standing in the fields, and some crops have reportedly been eaten by cattle at night. We have nothing now, and our lives have deteriorated,” he said.
Five of his children have stopped attending their Koranic and private primary schools because he could not pay the $10 fee required for each child.
Amina Hassan Ali fled Malable on 8 September and is now staying with her three children and elderly parents in the home of a family she had never met before. Her husband, the household’s sole provider, was killed by shelling in Malable in August while protecting their farm.
Amina said the family was taken in after they were found sitting in an isolated area on the day they arrived. They share a single room and depend on their hosts for food and water.
“In the morning we are lucky if we get a cup of coffee,” she said. “The children cry when there is no food. Their father used to work and bring home what we needed. Now our situation is very difficult.”
Pregnant and unable to perform manual labour, Amina has no income. Her mother is 78, her father is 90 and her eldest child is only seven, leaving no one in the household able to work.
The family left behind 13 sacks of maize from a one-hectare plot they had rented for $20 for the growing season. They were to pay the landowner with part of the harvest, but the fighting forced them to leave before that arrangement could be fulfilled.
“We spent a night in the bush and left the following morning, but we struggled to find a safe route,” she said. “My children and elderly parents could barely keep up. We live in constant fear because the fighting continues. I don’t know the town well, and there is no work. We can only rely on God.”
Amina also owes $50 for food and water her husband acquired before he was killed. The couple had planned to settle the debt using proceeds from the maize harvest, but the creditor continues to demand payment and she has no money.
She said the lack of food and water, together with inadequate shelter, had made caring for her young children and elderly parents even more difficult.
Janale district commissioner Abdirahman Yusuf Ali Al-Adala told Radio Ergo that a local committee had registered 1,700 families displaced by conflict from at least 25 villages.
Some of the new arrivals were suffering from illnesses including anaemia and malaria. The committee had distributed limited quantities of food, household supplies, medicine and cash raised from local businesses.
“The needs are far greater than what we can provide, and we have not received assistance from elsewhere,” he said.
The commissioner said the families arrived during the rainy season. Some residents had opened their homes and shared their resources, but many others remained without shelter because of the scale of the displacement.
He said authorities had reported the crisis to the administration and humanitarian organisations and were waiting for a response. Many of those displaced are farmers who could return to earning a living if they received financial assistance and investment.
