Habibo Ateye Taqal, Somalia "Even the donkeys can't eat what they give us as food"

"My name is Habibo Ateye Taqal. I have been living in this Somali refugee camp [Ifo camp in Dadaab, northeastern Kenya] for the past 13 years. Life has been very challenging, and the early years were better than now. Aid agencies used to be very helpful in trying to take care of us, but we are now facing the hardest time we have ever had as refugees.

"For the last few months we have been getting maize only, no other food. Even the donkeys can't eat what they give us as food. They distribute a small amount of flour that is not enough, and we are hungry. Especially children and old people are the vulnerable ones; many children fall sick and end up in hospital. I was in the hospital with my 15-year old daughter recently. She was sick and for five days we couldn't get any medicines for her except Panadol tablets. I was forced to bring her back home at night on a cart. The main problems we have, as you see, are lack of food and medicines.

"News from back home in Somalia is not so good. Everyday we hear from the BBC about fighting and killings, and peace is not going to come very soon, we are not hopeful. But we would be happy the moment that peace comes to our country to be the first person to go back.

"Right now, I am like a prisoner, because I can't go out of this refugee camp to look for some help. We can't grow our own food. Normally when people face a food shortage, they go and get some food and help from their relatives living in other places of the country. You can't do that here because you will be arrested and then you have to pay Kenyan money to be released, so we have all these problems."