In the past two decades, more than one million people have been forced to flee the fierce fighting and chronic drought that has plagued Somalia. But in the past year, Somalia’s humanitarian situation has deteriorated rapidly. Two consecutive seasons of low rainfall and reduced humanitarian access have further compounded the situation.

The Musbah camp for Somalia's displaced, roughly 12 miles from Mogadishu, has been the home of Fatuma Guleed, 87, for nearly a decade. She tells us of her daily struggle and the challenges women face in the camps they now call home. 

In 2006, when Ethiopia invaded Somalia, Fatuma’s family was caught in the fighting. Two of Fatuma’s eight children were killed, and later that year, conflict claimed the lives of three more of her children. She fled in December 2006. With the help of kind strangers who agreed to take her on the road in their truck, she found herself at Musbah camp, where she remains.

Musbah camp is one of two camps established near Mogadishu. One of her surviving daughters, Habiba, lives in Camp Elaasha, over six miles away. They were separated during the fighting but reunited in 2011, during the food crisis that hit the Horn of Africa and northern Somalia. 

Despite some help from her neighbors, Fatuma often goes to sleep hungry. In an effort to generate some income, she travels daily to Mogadishu to wash clothes–but a lot of the money she makes is spent on transport there and back.

“With no resources to rebuild their lives, people living in these camps are the poorest and most deprived of Somalia."

Dreams shattered, Fatuma said she feels hopeless and is simply waiting to die. Her life, she said, was shattered when she was just thirty years old and her husband died, leaving her with children to support. In this situation, she said their eldest son had no choice but to join a militia to help support his family. At one point, Fatuma wanted to settle in Kismayu with her son, but they were both threatened.

"In the camps, women are really vulnerable"

Most women live in the camps alone with their children. According to Fatuma, while assault cases are not common, women still live in fear–a fear reinforced by incidents in the camp.

“Almost every night, we are awakened by the cries of women being chased by bandits. A camp is not a house, there is no door. A man can go at any time and do what he wants without ever being punished.”

For the past twenty years, we’ve worked in Somalia helping people like Fatuma. But so far, the international community and the various Somali authorities have not fulfilled their responsibilities to families in urgent need–especially women and children. The safety, dignity, and basic human rights of the 1.1 million people displaced inside Somalia urgently need to be protected.