MOGADISHU, 26 May 2009 (IRIN) – Nasteeho Osman, 29, returned to her home in Wardhigley district, south Mogadishu, in April after nearly two years in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). She first fled the fighting between Ethiopian-backed government troops and insurgents in Mogadishu in 2007 to seek shelter in an IDP camp in Arbiska area, 30km south of the city.

After recent intense fighting in the Somali capital, Osman is back at the IDP camp she left a month ago, with her four children – aged between four and 10 years. Osman’s husband was taken by soldiers days before she first fled in 2007 and she has not seen him since. She spoke to IRIN on 26 May:

“We lived in Wardhigley. Both my husband and I worked in Bakara market; he worked in a store and I sold food and vegetables in my stall.

“My children never went hungry and I thank God that we always managed to provide food for them.

“However, all this changed in 2007 as soon as the Ethiopian troops arrived [to help oust the Union of Islamic Courts] and the fighting began; Wardhigley and the nearby Bakara area became one of the most contested in the city.

“Wardhigley was shelled on a daily basis and almost every home in our neighbourhood was hit once, sometimes more than once.

“We could not go out to work or do anything. That is when we decided to go the camps. However, before we left, troops came to our neighbourhood and took some men, including my husband. That was the last time I saw him. I don’t know if he is dead or alive. I don’t know what to tell my children.

I don’t know if he is dead or alive. I don’t know what to tell my children

“I returned to our home in April because life in the camp was bad and I was hoping that peace would return but instead things got worse.

“After only four weeks, we were forced to run for our lives and return to the camp we had left.

“I am now sharing a small place with another family who were kind enough to let us stay; they share what little they have.

“Life is very hard. We don’t have enough to eat. We don’t have a place to sleep. Previously, we survived on my daily earning from the market; now I am all alone, trying to raise four children and cannot even explain to them what happened to their father because I don’t know.

“I don’t know when our suffering will end. All I want is a safe place to raise my children.”

ah/mw

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