IDPs face eviction from camp

The Somali government is threatening to evict over 1,600 displaced families from the compound of a former technical college in the capital Mogadishu, local sources said.

"A government official brought a letter ordering us to vacate the polytechnic," Adan Nur, a member of a council in charge of the displaced people's camp, told IRIN on 7 January.

He said the college’s compound is home to 1,665 families, including long-term internally displaced persons (IDPs) and those forced to flee recent violence in Mogadishu.

Nur said the government order came from the mayor's office and gave the IDPs 24 hours to leave. "We have nowhere to go and no means to move. I don’t know what we will do," he said.

Officials have not yet allocated or provided alternative accommodation for the IDPs, he added.

"We are appealing to the government to change its stand to allow us to stay where we are until the situation in the country improves."

A civil society source said: "We are in contact with the government at the highest levels to halt the evictions. We have not had any response yet.”

He said some of the displaced people have lived in the college compound for 16 years and “know no other home”.

IRIN's attempts to get comments from the mayor's office were unsuccessful.

In addition to the hundreds of thousands of IDPs fleeing insecurity and violence in Mogadishu, thousands of other residents and long-term IDPs - displaced at the start of the civil war in the early 1990s - are reported to have been evicted from their homes in government and public buildings, according to a civil society source.

Nur appealed to humanitarian agencies to intervene. "They are our last hope," he said.

Meanwhile, violence has continued to displace families in the city.

"Last night [6 January] fighting around parts of Hodan [south Mogadishu] district, and Gubta [northwest] areas forced many families to flee," said a local resident.

He said that many people had fled Huriwa, Towfiq and Yaqshiid districts during the weekend. "The few families left are now looking for safer areas."

The renewed movement of people has been caused by increasing clashes between Ethiopian-backed government forces and insurgents, he said. "We have been witnessing more daring attacks on Ethiopian and government positions by the insurgents in the last couple of weeks."

Violence in Mogadishu drove hundreds of thousands of civilians from the city in 2007, forcing them to live in squalid camps on the outskirts of the capital, where they have limited access to food and water, and lack shelter, medical and sanitation facilities.

ah/sr