“We can't sleep because our rooms are flooded. Furthermore, this place is full of snakes and mosquitoes and the water is contaminated by sewers and other filth,” complains Boley Ma'alin Abikar, an 80-year-old blind woman who lives with two children and several grandchildren, most of them They also have some type of disability, in the Al Barako displaced persons camp, on the outskirts of the city of Baidoa, in southwestern Somalia.
When the floods reached the town, everyone who could fled to safer, higher ground, but around 800 families remain trapped in this camp. Heavy rains began in October and have already left at least 118 dead and affected more than 2.4 million people in Somalia, according to the United Nations. The impact of these rains has been accentuated by the climate crisis: the torrential rainfall that punished cities, towns, fields and farms came shortly after the country was hit by the worst drought in the last 40 years.
Earlier this year, Abikar's family fled more than 200 kilometers from their home in Qoryoley, following the devastating drought that wiped out their herd of 260 cows and goats. They were also escaping from the Islamist group Al Shabab, which controls a large part of the country and to whom they had to pay taxes impossible to assume, especially due to the effects of the drought. These floods have forced 1.2 million people to leave their homes, according to UN data, based on official Somali figures. The total number of displaced people in this African country has already reached four million, that is, more than 20% of the population.
Abikar's orange scarf is the same color as the orange plastic that covers the makeshift shelters of Al Barako, located in a crater-shaped depression, more like a lake. This woman's daughter, Batulo Mohamed Ibrahim, does not move from her wheelchair. Her clothes are faded and ragged and her feet are covered in mud. Her legs and arms are deformed and she has never been able to speak in her life. Before the floods, her relatives used to take her to the city, where she would beg to bring money to the home. Now she is trapped: it is impossible to push the wheelchair through the thick, heavy mud. It takes three or four people to transport it just a few meters. Like this woman, other displaced people from the countryside used to live off the alms they got in the center of Baidoa. Now they are helpless, unable to go out to look for food, drinking water, medicine or other essential items.
Abikar also lives with his son, Mohamed Ibrahim, his wife and their 10 children, all of whom were born with disabilities. Some are blind, others have special physical needs and others suffer from mental difficulties. Ibrahim used to find work in the city as a janitor and cleaner, but now he is unemployed.
“We can't sleep because our rooms are flooded. Furthermore, this place is full of snakes and mosquitoes and the water is contaminated by sewage and other filth.”
Boley Ma'alin Abikar, resident of Al Barako displaced persons camp
The longer Abikar's family stays in the camp, the greater the risk of contracting waterborne diseases. The United Nations says 384 informal settlements in Somalia have been affected by flooding in the Baidoa town area, endangering more than a quarter of a million people displaced by war and drought. The UN, which has described these as the “floods of the century”, has warned of a 70% increase in cholera cases in the country in the last three weeks.
An emergency without funding
With the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza drawing international attention and resources, humanitarian agencies are struggling to fund emergency responses in countries like Somalia, which has endured 35 years of conflict.
He Humanitarian Response Plan 2023 for Somalia, which requires 2.6 billion dollars (about 2.4 billion euros) to help the 7.6 million most vulnerable people in the country, it has only been 42% financed. On December 3, the UN estimated that aid had reached some 820,000 people, around 30% of those affected by the floods. Some areas remain inaccessible due to being controlled by Al Shabab, affected by the conflict or having difficult access conditions, as is the case in the Baidoa camp. So far, no humanitarian agency has provided aid to these families.
Mustaf Salad Ali, appointed by the Government in charge of caring for people with disabilities in the southwest of the State, recognizes the difficulties faced by residents of the camp. “Some cannot see or hear. Others can't move. So they cannot escape the terrible floods, nor even know that they are coming. The community and the Government have to work together to help them,” he estimates, admitting that the authorities are overwhelmed with the help they must provide to those affected by the rains.
His words offer little comfort to people like Ibrahim Ali Jesow, who was born with leg malformations. He can't leave the camp because his crutches sink hopelessly into the mud. Before, he made a living teaching the Koran to children with disabilities. “I taught about 50 students in a makeshift classroom. His parents paid me what they could. Some gave me two or three euros a month, others didn't pay me anything,” he recalls. “Now the classroom has been washed away by the floods, so the children can't learn, I can't teach and I can't earn a living,” he laments. “We do not have water to drink or to wash before praying. “We are at great risk of contracting diseases from the contaminated water we are forced to drink.” Buying water in the countryside costs 0.5 euros, something that most cannot afford, even if they were able to make their way to the places where it is sold.
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