WUNRN
SOMALIA - DISPLACED WOMEN - POVERTY,
HUNGER, ILLNESS, WAR, RAPE,
MANY WIDOWS, GRIM REFUGEE CAMPS,
STRUGGLES TO SURVIVE
By Helen Vesperini
23 October 2009
Photo: AFP
But it is still better than the
horrors they fled: civil war battles in
Many have "lost" their
husbands. Some men abandoned their families, others tried to cross the Gulf of
Aden into
The wastelands
on the edge of Galkayo, a large swathe of low thorn scrub where millions of
plastic bags flutter in the breeze, are home to several camps.
In a camp called Mustaqbal, which
translates as "future", Halima, a divorcee of 35, recounted from
behind her veil how she fled shelling in
"We are the breadwinners for
our families. We have no husbands and our daily earnings are not enough to
survive on," she said, gesticulating with henna-patterned hands.
Halima has what is known locally
as a "shoulder shop": she hawks goods, in this case clothing, from
door to door.
The huts consist of acacia
branches twisted into a dome shape and covered with ragged cloths and rice
sacks. A typical hut for a family is between two and four square metres.
Without men the women are
constantly at risk of attack. They have to pay for guards at night.
"Not a week goes by when we
don't have a rape case," said Hawa Adan Mohamed, a women's rights activist
who runs vocational training schemes and manufacturing projects in Galkayo.
"If you go to the police
there's no follow-up. They say that because of the clan issue they cannot touch
the perpetrator."
"Here the strongest man
takes all," said a United Nations official.
Just down the road in Bulo Baaley
camp the smell is overbearing. After dark, adults and children alike defecate
into plastic potties which stand in front of the huts.
The shacks here are bigger but
the landowner charges rent.
"If you can't pay, he takes
one of the children. He keeps the child until he gets paid," explained
Kasman Katal, a mother of three who looks older than her 20 years.
"My husband left for
She and her neighbour Marianne
Abdi, a pretty girl of 15 who is already divorced with a child, make money by
removing garbage from houses in Galkayo and dumping it at the edge of town.
Tawakal camp, home to around
1,700 families, has a school and latrines. It is further away from any formal settlement
so work is harder to come by. But there is no rent to pay and school is free.
Hawa, sat on a piece of sacking
in front of her hut, looks close to giving up on life. Her aged mother lies
next to her, sick with malaria while her adolescent daughter struggles to do
the washing up in a shallow pan of water.
"We get food on credit, then
we pay our debts when relatives send us something," she said staring at
the ground.
"Galkayo is surrounded by
conflict-affected displaced from south and central
Humanitarian workers say there
are 220,000 displaced people in north and south Galkayo.
Galkayo, which straddles the
"border" between the north-eastern semi-autonomous region of Puntland
and
As African heads of state hold a
special summit in
Civilians fleeing conflict have
turned northern
Huge numbers are concentrated in
the north, in Puntland or
Grinding poverty, coupled with
Those fleeing the south and
centre are fair game for armed gangs.
"In
She spoke on behalf of about 100
women who fled the south between May and August and who took refuge in
Hargeysa,
The aggressors are youths in
civilian clothes. Either no-one knows which militia they belong to, or no-one
wants to say. They attack trucks at night while passengers sleep on board.
Another group with little future
are people of Somali origin who settled in the Ogaden region of
UNHCR and Relief International, a
In Tawakal the increase in the
goat population has in turn attracted hyenas.
Habiba Barre, 30, lives in a
hovel made of flattened powdered milk cans. She showed off a hole in the side of
the hut that has been filled with earth. A hyena tried to get in to carry away
her three goats.
Barre says she fled
"Here at least we are only scared of hyenas, not of being killed," she said. ________________________________________________________________________
Somalia
- Muslim Insurgents Impose Restrictions Against
Women
Working & Close Women's Organizatons
02
November 2009
Source:
Reuters
By
Sahra Abdi Ahmed
NAIROBI,
Nov 2 (Reuters) - Somalia's hardline al Shabaab insurgents closed three
grassroots women's organisations in the rebel-held town of Balad Hawa on Monday
to stop women from going to work, a rebel leader said.
The
group wants to impose its own version of Islamic law on areas it controls, and
Washington says it is al Qaeda's proxy in the Horn of African nation.
"We
have taken this step after we recognised that women need to stay in their homes
and take care of their children ... Islam does not allow women to go to
offices," Maalim Daaud Mohmed, the chairman of Balad Hawa, told Reuters by
telephone.
Balad
Hawa is located on the Somali border with Kenya, near the Kenyan town of
Mandera.
The
organisations closed by al Shabaab are the Halgan Businesswomen's Organisation,
the Sed Huro Human Rights Organisation and Farhan Woman for Peace, he said.
The
insurgents have banned movies, musical ringtones, dancing at wedding ceremonies
and playing and watching soccer.
Courts
have ordered executions, floggings and amputations in recent months, mostly in
the southern Kismayu region and rebel-held districts of the capital.
The
rebel leader said they would also close five non-governmental organisations in
the region. He did not name them.
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