Abdi Osman
1 September 2008
Dadaab — They are broke, hungry and on the verge of despair. Sleeping under trees at night with their children and waiting for handouts by the day to hold together their souls and emaciated frames. They can only live one day at a time.
These are refugees who have been flocking the Dadaab refugee camp from Somalia following heavy fighting in their country.
More than 40,000 new arrivals moved into the camp recently to try and rebuild their shattered lives in a sea of hardship and want.
Mr Mustafa Maalim Ali is one of those who escaped the Somali conflict three weeks ago and is just starting a new life in Dadaab. He knows the cost of war and the price of peace. His face is not beaming with optimism, quite surprising for a man who successfully crossed over to the safety of the Dadaab refugee camp from marauding armed gangs engaged in fierce fighting in his native Somalia. Most of the new arrivals have been settled at Dagahaley and Ifo camps.
Holding his two daughters Neema and Safiya, Maalim, a former Mogadishu resident, tells me a familiar story of suffering and hardship that can easily break a man his age. "I have been here for over three weeks now... I take care of 11 children, my own and my siblings. We are now forced to sleep under trees; we have nothing, rain pounds us in the open," he tells me from the other side of a chain link fence that keeps him and dozens more at bay as they await the start of their registration. His sweaty face is unflinching as he narrates his tale of misery in the searing afternoon sun of Dadaab.
Fled battle
Maalim says he has been left with no possessions after he fled the war in Somalia. "We fled the battle and our family separated. I last met my mother in Afgoye, Somalia. I was forced to sell some of my clothes to buy food upon my arrival here," he adds with a sigh of exasperation and frustration.
For Maalim Lujendo Mihina, a Somali Bantu farmer, war and insecurity forced him out of his farm in southern Somalia. He was tilling his land and living off it. He says the journey to the refugee camps was laden with perils and at one point, he and his family had to walk from southern Somalia to Doble town on the Kenya-Somali border. "We spent 17 days on the road," the weary-looking man tells me. His rather emaciated frame reveals the hardships he has had to endure.
Maalim Lujendo believed he was lucky when he finally crossed into Kenya and was promptly registered as a refugee and issued with relevant papers to use at Dagahaley camp. He could not afford to transport his family to Dagahaley camp. But Mijindo's family had been ferried to Kenya by a man who wanted to be paid for his services.
Mijindo says he told him that he was flat broke and just could not afford to pay the agreed fee. A man who had welcomed Lujendo to Dagahaley camp paid the transport costs for him and later demanded a refund. Lujendo was still unable to pay and the man snatched his registration card and told him that he could only collect it upon payment of his debt.
Now Lujendo can only watch as his sons Hussein, Hassan, Salat, Abdikadir and namesake Lujendo cry in hunger. Without a registration card, he remains helpless, relying on fellow refugees for handouts that rarely come.
This is a man entitled to daily rations but fell victim to circumstances many others have found themselves in. When we visited the camp, officials were investigating his case to get him proper papers. The shrivelled faces of his children tell of severe malnourishment.
For the new arrivals, life is tough. Some still have no roof over their heads. The UNHCR Sub-Office in Dadaab concedes that it does not have enough resources to get all new arrivals shelter material (tents, plastic sheeting, etc).
Fighting
For Asli Osman Musa, a teenage girl, life at the camp is a far cry from the comfort of her home in Mogadishu. "I haven't seen any of my relatives since we fled... I don't know where my mother and father are now," she says, fighting to hold back tears welling in her eyes.
The UN has appealed for more food aid for Somalia following the renewed fighting in the war-torn Horn of Africa nation. UN special humanitarian envoy for Middle East and North Africa Abdulaziz Mohamed Arrukban visited Mogadishu last Wednesday and lamented the worsening humanitarian crisis there.
Mr Arrukban said escalating food prices and inflation have hit the poorest segments of Somali society, making life unbearable for many. The UN special envoy later visited Dadaab Refugee Camp.
During his tour of the three camps --Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley -- Mr Arrukban saw first hand the tough conditions the new arrivals from Somalia find themselves in.
With international and local journalists in tow, Mr Arrukban shared moments with the refugees, speaking to them in their dilapidated structures, walking through the camps and seeing families share the most basic amenities including latrines. One of the refugees told me that it is not uncommon for over 10 families to share one bathroom.
One of the homes Mr Arrukban visited is that of Mr Salat Maalim Abdirahman, a Swahili-speaking Somali refugee. "I'm comfortable here," the smiling Salat told the visiting official. Mr Salat is from the minority Somali Bantu community. Many of his kinsmen till land near Kismayu but Mr Salat lived in Mogadishu for most of his life. "We reached here by the grace of God; there was insecurity all along the way here."
The UN special humanitarian envoy knows just what these refugees are fleeing from. He saw the tough life Mogadishu residents are forced to live under during his Wednesday visit. According to Mr Arrukban, wars, drought and escalating food prices have only served to worsen the already bad situation in Mogadishu. He says more than three million Somalis are in urgent need of assistance.
Scarcity of land is another problem at the refugee camps. Although the land around Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley camps is community trust land, the local people do not want to cede more land to UNHCR. They feel that the camps have taken rangeland meant for their livestock.
The UNHCR on its part says the need for camp expansion has never been more pressing.
Thousands of refugees have crossed into Kenya since the beginning of the year and soon the agency will run out of land for its tented camps. Part of the programme to mollify locals has seen 34 boreholes sunk through Unicef funding.
Providing fresh and potable water remains a challenge. There are 16 operational boreholes and about 800 taps serving the over 200,000 refugees in the three camps. The boreholes provide 18 litres of water per person per day. There is one more borehole for emergencies.
The big number of refugees means more pressure on the environment. The local habitat has taken a direct hit as a result of increased consumption of firewood that is not matched with afforestation and reforestation programmes run by German non-governmental organisation GTZ.
Educating the refugees remains a priority for UNHCR. There are 18 primary and three secondary schools serving the entire refugee population. more than 60 per cent of the 40,402 students are male. UNHCR estimates that over 14,000 children are out of school. Teacher to student ratio figures show the need for urgent intervention.
There is only 1 teacher for 107 adult learners and only 1 teacher for 54 primary school pupils.
Less than 2,000 students are able to access secondary school education but getting an opportunity to further their education remains difficult.
Quite a number end up as translators in the camps.
This is a time of apprehension for camp officials. The October - December rains usually flood the area, ruining the road network and cutting off the camps. The biggest challenge is moving food rations to and between the camps and ensuring that the most vulnerable refugees get proper medical and nutritional attention. Each refugee has to get his requisite daily ration of 2,100 kilocalories. "During the last rains, trucks got stuck for over three days on the roads," an official tells me during a guided tour.
Health sports
There is one main hospital for each camp, with two doctors and supporting staff. There are also five health posts per camp. The three hospitals at the Ifo, Dagahaley and Hagadera camps have over 300 beds.
Things are looking up on other fronts. UNHCR says it has received funding for Radio Dadaab, a community FM radio station that will help inform and entertain the men and women rebuilding their lives at the camps.
Jesus Vazquez, a well-known Spanish television presenter, has donated 25 million shillings (250,000 euros) to start the station. Plans for the station to start broadcasting are said to be at an advanced stage.
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The older the wiser, an older presedent is better than a younger one this, bull shit of age limmit should be left to idiots, later retirement age means better use of experience and investment in HR and R&D. A country that disregards the wisdom of age is a country of idiot, did I say idiots, yes idiots. Greed and ambition can make people who shuould never have beeb allowed to sit in parliamnet to say the most stupid things that ever left the mouth of a legislator, if we have idiots in such positions what will come of the country??
In response to the commenter who wonders whether God has forsaken His people, my answer is God will NEVER forsake His people. However, WE are His hands, His feet, His agents of mercy and compassion; too often it is US who forsake those most needy and vulnerable among us. I cry my eyes out in prayer for the many complicated and devastating situations in the world every day. It is going to take all of us to make the difference that the current world crises demand. Since you are speaking about Christianity, I would remind you that Christianity is not a spectator sport; there is no such thing as winning the race if we never run it. May we all rise to the occasion to do what we can with what we've got. May God Bless Kenya.
i read the food crisis that exsist in the camp and iwould like to ask the un agencies to surport the desperate refugess with no good governance that think of their future.as i have been living in dadaab camp for the last 18 years and appreciate for unhcr and her patner agency working to develope the wellbeing for somali;s sudance ,eriteria,congoles,oromos, being in arefuee in dadaab is like being in aden of no road but thanks to every refugee studant who finish his /her school in dadaab camps who are now surporting their refugee people in different types of activities by means of incentive of [3500ksh]equivelent[45doller ] in amonth ,thanks for your hardwork and services you give to people by dhubow texas amarillo
Another sad news from those ungodly Refugee Camps where thousands of starving women, children , the old and the sick are waiting for miracles which hardly happens for they are the forgotten people of Somalia and it is hard breaking to say the least. I must admit that i sometimes question about my faith and if God is true as i beleive, why has he foresaken his folks for so long ? your guess is as good as mine .