Harrowing choices for many in Somalia

NUURTO Ibrahim Mannur comes from a remote village called Barbaare (75km west of Baidoa town) in south-central Somalia.

In her early forties, she is a mother of nine and the head of her family. Her husband left them when they had lost their herd of cows and nobody knows his whereabouts. She decided to leave for Baidoa town following deterioration in the situation in her village due to the extreme drought affecting the region and, indeed, the whole Horn of Africa.

However, before leaving for Baidoa, she had to make a big decision: she could not take all of her nine children and she had to leave some of them behind. She decided to take three children, the strongest of whom would be able to endure the long walk to Baidoa.

She and her three children survived that six-day long journey. They are in a displaced persons’ camp in Baidoa supported by Concern and will certainly get food tomorrow. But her heart is not in Baidoa and she is extremely worried about the six children she had to leave behind in Barbaare village. She does not have any information about them. She is very weak and not eating anything now. She wants to return and collect them but she is not sure if she will see them alive again.

She is extremely traumatised and unable to cope with the realities of her situation. She wants to take some food items with her and walk another 75kms back to her village.

Our field coordinator in Baidoa thinks that the chances of Nuurto seeing her children alive are very, very remote. Nonetheless, Concern has just sent her and the three children in a car to see if she can unite the family.

Concern is doing its best to help the thousands of people in similar situations as Nuurto with the tremendous support of the Irish public.

This is not atypical of the real human impact of the tragic circumstances I see unfolding here in the Horn of Africa since I arrived a few days ago, and where they are experiencing their worst drought in 60 years and where 10 million people are affected.

The situation on the ground is truly harrowing.

Human beings should not have to make choices like this.

Jennifer O’Gorman

Concern Worldwide

Somalia