Afraid to return home despite prevailing calm

Malyuun Ibrahim has been sleeping under a tree along with 10 children since recent fighting forced her to abandon her home in the north of the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

"The fighting was so bad we could not even venture to our gate," she said. "We have been displaced for two weeks; sleeping under a tree is not home but at least we are safe for now."

Malyuun, 32, a shopkeeper who had been struggling to bring up her family in the in Yaqshiid area of Mogadishu, moved to Hawo Abdi area IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp south of Mogadishu. "We share what little we get. We try to help each other," she said.

The children, four her own and six from other relatives - aged 5 to 14 - have however been affected by the move.

"All are suffering from respiratory diseases; coughing," said one overwhelmed local doctor who visits the sick in Hawo Abdi IDP camp.

"There are a lot of very sick people here," added Malyuun.

The priority needs in the camp are food, water and shelter. "I hope we get something to cover our tree before the rains," said Malyuun. "I hope we will soon be back home."

Photo: Abdimalik Yusuf/IRIN

Displaced Mogadishu residents

Malyuun is one of tens of thousands of people who fled their homes in Mogadishu to escape fighting between Ethiopian and government forces and insurgents two weeks ago. While calm has returned to the city, the IDPs have remained reluctant to return home.

"There is fear among the population of renewed fighting," Madina Mahamud Ilmi, the deputy head of a civil society taskforce set up to help the displaced, said on Tuesday. 

"Many of the displaced do not believe the current ceasefire will last," she added.

A ceasefire agreed between clan elders and the Ethiopians has been in place since 1 April. However, the residents, while hopeful that the truce may hold, still fear the worst, said one local journalist who requested anonymity.

Ilmi said the displaced - mostly women, children and the elderly - had not received any "significant help up to now".

Mahamud Sahid, one of three volunteer doctors visiting makeshift IDP camps outside the city, said the health condition of the displaced was "worsening".  Most are suffering from diarrhoea, respiratory and skin diseases. "Ninety percent of our patients are children," he said.

He added many of the IDPs were already weak and that there was an urgent need for shelter before the onset of the Gu rains [long rains due in April].

Many of the displaced do not believe the current ceasefire will last

Meanwhile, the clan elders who negotiated a ceasefire with Ethiopian troops said at least 1,000 people have been killed in the fighting and more than 4,000 wounded.

"Our figures are 1,086 dead and 4,344 wounded," Huseein Siyaad Qorgaab, one of the negotiators, told IRIN.

He said they arrived at that figure after those who had been killed or wounded had been rounded up in the past week. Most of those killed or wounded were civilians, he said.

Qorgaab said the Hawiye clan elders wanted an international fact-finding team to see the devastation. Talks between the Hawiye elders and Ethiopian commanders were continuing and both sides have been working on making the ceasefire hold, he added.

ah/jm