Hiran villagers displaced by conflict return to find homes and farms destroyed

Thursday January 6, 2022

Four hundred families displaced by clan conflict in central Somalia’s Hiran region have returned home to their village to find all their homes and farms destroyed by the fighting that took place last September.

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Abdikadir Maalin Dahir, with a family of nine, returned to Kabhanley village, 27 kilometres north of Beledweyne, in early December to find their home and one-and-a-half-hectare farm in ruins. They erected a flimsy hut to shelter under and have been surviving on food from better off neighbours.

“Not having anything to eat is terrible. Our biggest problem now is food,” he told Radio Ergo

Abdikadir said his family depended on their farm for income. The crops he had planted last year were destroyed and he has no money to replant.

They were transported back home by a military vehicle from Deefow, 18 kilometres away, where they had sought refuge from the conflict. He is anxious about the dire situation facing his family.

“I used to harvest my farm and the little harvest I got sustained my children until the next harvest season. I used to work on my farm, but today I have nothing at all,” he said.

Aisha Osman Dahir, a mother of seven, returned to Kabhanley on 8 December. She set up a small restaurant trying to provide for the family as their three-hectare farm was ruined and they also have no means to plant again.

She used $100 sent by her sister in Saudi Arabia to open the small food business. When she gets customers, she makes four to eight dollars in a day, but mostly there are very few people buying food as so many villagers are in a similar predicament.

She does not have enough to pay the children’s school fees. Their biggest immediate problem is shelter, as they are sleeping under a hut made of plastic and clothing tied together. Her family’s two-roomed house in the village was destroyed in the fighting and they have no means to rebuild it.

“We don’t have anywhere to shelter if it rains now. The burnt roof of our two roomed house is scattered all over the ground,” she said.

Aisha said the fighting also destroyed the water catchments and wells. Residents are now getting water from the river Shabelle four kilometres away.

“Our water pumps, which we used to draw water from the well, have been stolen. At the moment, we are sitting out in the sun and we don’t have water,” she said.

Ibrahin Abdi Elmi, a father of seven, said that since returning to the village he has been buying food on credit from local shops and has a current debt of $340. His six hectares planted with fruit trees and maize were all completely burned.

Kabhanley district commissioner, Abdirahman Sheikh Nur, confirmed to Radio Ergo that the families who have returned to the village are all living in a dire situation. He noted that his office has no means to assist the families, who have not yet received any aid. However, he stated that they had informed Hiran regional administration about the situation.

The district commissioner said more than 60 houses, hundreds of farms, and 50 farm water pumps were destroyed in the conflict.

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