Heavy rains compound IDP plight

The torrential rains that pounded Mogadishu over the weekend have washed away shelters for internally displaced people (IDPs) camping in and around the city, local leaders said.

"We had heavy rains for four days from Thursday [4 September] which destroyed people's shelters," said Aweys Yusuf, a community camp leader in Arbiska, about 20km south of Mogadishu.

"We have had five people die, four of them children aged three and two in Alrahim camp from two families," he said.

Nuurto Aweys, mother of two of the dead children, told IRIN they had been weakened by lack of food. "When the rains came, we had nowhere to shelter and they just died," she said. "We were sitting in an open area for over 18 hours with the rains coming down hard."

A medical worker in the area told IRIN the children, who were already weak, probably died of exposure. "The rains have made a very bad situation worse," he said.

Many of the displaced have no proper shelter and the plastic sheeting that covers their shacks is worn out, he said.

Yusuf said there were some 65 camps in the Arbiska area, hosting an estimated 11,000 families (66,000 people). "Residents of 36 camps are today without any form of shelter, even the twigs have gone," he said.

Many desperate families had sought shelter in latrines, made of corrugated iron sheeting, "but latrines cannot accommodate everybody and are not healthy", said Yusuf.

Zahro Mohamed, a 28-year-old mother, who also lost two children and whose family shelter was destroyed, had to move in with neighbours. She told IRIN on 10 September that she was worried for her 18-month-old girl. "I don’t know what I will do to protect her."

Yusuf said there was an urgent need for shelter material. "We need a lot of things but right now we need immediate help in shelter material." Food and water were also in short supply.

Conflict, drought and hyperinflation have combined to create a humanitarian crisis in Somalia. The Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said 3.2m Somalis needed food aid, an increase of 77 percent from last year.

"One in six children under the age of five is acutely malnourished, and the number is continuing to increase," FSAU said in a statement in August.

ah/mw