Somalia: Massive new displacements as power struggle in
Mogadishu flares up again
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UNIFEM
Women, War,
Peace and
Displacement
The often cited statistic that as many as 80 per cent of
displaced populations are women and children fails to convey the complete
devastation that displacement visits upon women and communities in general.
Leaving homes, property and community behind, renders women vulnerable to
violence, disease and food scarcity, whether women flee willingly or
unwillingly. Internally displaced women face additional dangers as they are
often invisible to the international community within the borders of countries
at war. Camps for refugees and the internally displaced have been criticized for
not addressing women’s needs and concerns in their design and procedure. Failure
to account for women’s security and health needs can make a camp dangerous and
deadly, when it was intended to provide refuge. Nonetheless, UN, governmental
and civil society organizations that service displaced women have begun rising
to the challenge of including women and gender perspectives at every stage of
policy and implementation.
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SOMALIA: Help Thousands
Displaced, Civil Society Urges Aid Agencies
Photo:
IRIN  |
| Civil Society Tasks force
member Madina Muhammad Ilmi distributing mats to the internally displaced
in Mogadishu |
NAIROBI, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - Civil
society organisations in Somalia have appealed to the international community to
help thousands of families that have been displaced over the past three months
following violence in the capital, Mogadishu.
"We are appealing to donor
agencies, particularly to the United Nations, to urgently come to the assistance
of these people who are living in the open," Madina Muhammad Ilmi, the deputy
head of a civil society taskforce to help the displaced, said on Wednesday.
The most pressing need is shelter material, to help people already
weakened by lack of food and water, said Ilmi. "We need help in all areas, but
plastic sheeting is urgently needed," she added.
It is estimated that at
least 200,000 people have fled their homes in the city since February. Ilmi said
almost all the displaced were depending on help from outside and were living in
the most appalling conditions.
Diseases such as diarrhoea and
respiratory problems among children and the elderly were taking a heavy toll on
the displaced, she said, adding that with the onset of the 'Gu' (long) rains,
the situation will get worse for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) if the
rains pick up as expected.
The taskforce recently distributed 600
plastic sheets donated by a business group. Ilmi urged the aid agencies to
address the shelter needs of the displaced "as a matter of extreme urgency".
The United Nations has expressed concern at the lack of access to the
affected populations due to the prevailing insecurity in Mogadishu.
"Insecurity in and around the capital has obstructed humanitarian
partners from scaling up the response to meet the vast needs of the displaced,"
according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
for Somalia.
OCHA-Somalia said that while relief supplies were available
in Mogadishu, insecurity had prevented access to warehouses, and so far the
response has been minimal. Response efforts, it added, had also been undermined
as much by last minute administrative procedures requested by authorities as by
insecurity on the ground.
"Strategically located airstrips such as K50
[south of the city] and Merka [100 km south] remain inaccessible despite
repeated appeals to allow their use by humanitarian partners," said
OCHA-Somalia.
Meanwhile, heavy fighting broke out on Tuesday night in
Mogadishu, local sources told IRIN. The fighting started around 8:30 p.m. local
time in Wardigley area [south] and quickly spread to other parts of the city.
The fighting, which continued until 3:00 a.m., "was one of the heaviest
in recent days, and started when Ethiopian troops tried to reinforce their
positions in an area around the stadium [football]," the local source said.
Medical sources said at least 11 people were killed and 45 injured in
the latest clashes. Clan elders who negotiated a ceasefire with Ethiopian troops
in the city said it was still being observed despite the clashes.
"It is
a matter of disengagement. So long as the sides are facing each other there will
be clashes, that is why we are insisting that Ethiopians should return to their
former bases and away from population centres," said Ugas Abdidahir Ugas Nur, a
member of the Hawiye council of elders.
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