From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Oct 15 2009 - 10:46:25 EDT
SOMALIA: Halima Hassan, "It is better to be in a grave than living here"
MOGADISHU, 15 October 2009 (IRIN) - Halima Hassan, 42, a mother of five,
fled her home in Hodan district of the Somali capital in 2007 after intense
fighting between insurgents and government forces. Now, home is a makeshift
shelter in a camp for the internally displaced within the Elsha biyaha area,
20km south of Mogadishu.
Hassan is one of at least 900,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs)
struggling to survive under extremely desperate conditions in
Mogadishu-Afgoye corridor. Her family used to receive monthly food rations
comprising 75kg of sorghum, 10kg of beans, 10kg of porridge and 3l of
cooking oil from aid agencies but this has been cut in half due to lack of
funds and insecurity.
Hassan has since taken up casual work to supplement the aid. She spoke to
IRIN on 14 October:
"My husband was killed in 2007 when shells hit our home in Hodan; he left me
with five children and nothing else. The house was almost completely
destroyed. We could have stayed on but the fighting got worse and I couldn't
even go to the market, so I took the children and came with other families
to this place.
"We have been here ever since. I sometimes find myself wondering how God
decided to put us in this country; I know I should not but sometimes I find
myself wishing I was not Somali.
"I am losing hope, I don't know whether or not the situation will ever get
better. Every day, I keep wondering where our next meal will come from. I
struggle to make sure my children have at least one meal a day.
"Some days I even go up to Mogadishu to look for work. It is very dangerous
but I have no option. I am a good cook, so people hire me to cook for them
when they have celebrations such as weddings, but this does not happen too
often. Other days, I wash clothes or cut grass for sale.
"I will do anything so my children don't go hungry as I am the only one they
can depend on.
"They [the warring sides] are merciless. They fire heavy weapons
indiscriminately, where is their kindness? They don't think about the weak
and the mothers struggling with orphaned children.
"There is no peace and no food to speak of; I don't how long we can live
like this. It is very hard to explain to anyone who is not here what is
happening to us. Wars end but ours seems endless.
"In Somalia, every new dawn brings its own problems. We can't endure any
longer what is going on here. It is better to be in a grave than living
here."
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