Families fleeing Somalia crises find bleak prospects in Dadaab refugee camps

(ERGO) – Families fleeing adversity in different parts of southern Somalia have been arriving in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps, where they find themselves with no means of making a living nor aid or support.

They include families fleeing conflict in Baidoa, house demolitions by the Somali government in Mogadishu, and drought in their home areas.

The new arrivals say they have received no reception support, shelter, or other forms of aid. Some are staying with relatives already struggling to make ends meet, while others have settled on their own on vacant land in Dadaab’s Ifo-2 camp. They lack food, housing, toilets and other basic services.

Nurto Mohamed Ali, who arrived in Ifo-2 on 20 August, said her family had received no assistance and was struggling to meet basic needs. She is staying with relatives who arrived earlier.

“Neighbours collect maize and cooking oil for us. That is how we are surviving now,” she said. “We have children who need food and bedding, but we have nothing to give them.”

Nurto fled ongoing conflict in Baidoa between federal government forces and those loyal to the former South West State administration.

She was a farmer raising her family on their two-hectare plot of land in Baidoa. Separated from her husband, she receives no support from him and is the sole income earner.

In the refugee camp now, her seven children often go to bed hungry because she lacks food. They occupy a shelter made from plastic sheets, cloth and thorny branches in the yard of a relatives’ home – a household of 10. The days reach a scorching 37°C and the rainy season has begun. Nurto and her older children have to sleep outside without bedding while the youngest children cram themselves into the hut.

Nurto said they had expected to receive assistance on arrival, including refugee registration cards, household items, and a house. She has received nothing.

“We have no proper house, and even the people who arrived before us do not have one. The shelter situation is very difficult. We sleep on pieces of cloth and a small, broken mat,” she said.

Other vulnerable new arrivals, including older people, people with disabilities, women and children, are finding no formal help in the camp, where some walk around daily asking more established residents for food.

Hawo Mohamed Ali, her disabled husband, and their 10 children arrived in Ifo-2 on 1 August.

They fled Mogadishu’s Hodan district after the government demolished their house, saying the land belonged to the state. They had lived in the house for 34 years without having formal land ownership documents. She said losing the home made it impossible for her family to remain in Mogadishu.

“When we left and went outside, we found our land fenced off and surrounded by a wall,” she told Radio Ergo. “We were told the land would be measured and returned to us. Our houses were demolished using bulldozers, and we thought the land would be given back. Later, we were told it was government land and that we had to leave.”

The demolition left Hawo’s family homeless and they decided their only option was to seek refuge in Dadaab.

In Mogadishu, she earned a living selling meat and watermelon in local markets. In the refugee camp, however, they have not been registered and haven’t received aid cards or assistance. She looked for laundry work, but the jobs are irregular, so she has to ask others for help with food for her children. She lacks firewood and containers for collecting water.

“The children’s father is disabled, and life is very difficult for us. My children are still young and have nothing here. We left our home and came to a place we do not know,” said Hawo, adding that the conditions in Dadaab were far worse than she had expected.

The chairman of Hagardera camp, Khalif Dhubow Jelle, said the hardship facing new arrivals from Somalia had been brought to the attention of humanitarian agencies in the camps, but no effective response had followed.

He recorded nearly 250 families having arrived from southern Somalia in the past three months.

“Their living conditions are extremely poor. It is also the rainy season, yet these people have no shelter or place to stay. They are sitting in the open and have no food or water,” he said.

The new arrivals are joining a refugee population already struggling with difficult living conditions because of reduced humanitarian aid and wider economic hardship across the camps.