Saturday November 26, 2022
A burned house in Somalia/File Photo
(ERGO) – Maryan Osman Nur and her family of nine returned to Bukuri area in Somalia’s Hiran region in October – two months after their home and water sources were set ablaze by Al-Shabab militia, forcing them to move away.
They have constructed small makeshift structures next to their burned-out property and are trying to restart their life under difficult circumstances.
“Our lives became very hard. Living in a new location is not easy and I don’t have anything left. My children were getting sick and there was no money to treat them. Our situation was getting hard and that’s when we decided to move back to where my children grew up,” said Maryan, who was among the first people to return to the village.
They migrated to Beledweyne following the ordeal and stayed there with relatives for two months but struggled to adapt into the city and could not even find stores to sell her food on credit. When she heard that the Somali government had repaired the wells, she quickly made up her mind to move back home.
“I own a small cafeteria now where I make tea and that’s how I earn a living for my children. I bought a kettle and a few items, and I sell tea to the nomadic families,” said Maryan, who is able to cook one or two meals a day for her family.
She had run a successful business for 15 years selling clothes, food, and livestock medicine, but in the attacks and conflict in August she lost three houses and estimates her losses at around $15,000. She is chasing her creditors for debts of $4,000 so that she can also pay off her own loans.
“I feel so worried, I was doing well and had a good life, people can’t even recognize me due to me to my condition now. I know that God gave me my wealth, and the same God will help me. I was pregnant and my unborn child was sick, I even got complications with my pregnancy,” she explained.
Her children are now out of school although her main priority is shelter.
Osman Ahmed Hufane, a father of 12, has also returned to Bukuri and is living with his two wives and children live in a small plastic shelter in their old compound.
“There is poor shelter, my brother and his family are also homeless. We have suffered losses just like many other families in this area,” he said.
Osman said that he felt the biggest burden when the drought and conflict hit them. He lost 35 animals in the drought and 24 went missing in the conflict. He now has 41 goats left.
He is getting food on credit from aa store in Mahas district and has borrowed plastic sheeting from relatives.
The local commissioner of Bukuri, Ali Dahir Warsame, told Radio Ergo most of the 200 people returned to their houses in September when the water well was repaired. They were mostly pastoralist families who not adapt to the places they had moved to.
“All the vehicles that come to this area have people returning to their homes. If they don’t have houses they live under a tree and make simple structures using plastic sheets. People are returning every day although there is barely a house that has been reconstructed,” he said.
He has asked for more help from the Hirshabelle state administration and aid organisations.
“The main issue is the poor shelter. The pastoralist families must sell three to four goats to buy tents, the vegetation has also been burned, and the people are just sitting down in despair,” he stated.