Heavy rains aggravating conditions for Somalia's 'poorest of the poor'

AllAfrica.com via IRIN: Heavy rains have compounded the already difficult conditions for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs), who fled fighting in Mogadishu for camps outside the Somali capital, civil society groups said. "The rains have made their living conditions even more difficult; almost all the new arrivals are staying under trees with nothing to shelter from the rains," Ahmed Dini of Peaceline, a Somali civil society group, who was visiting the IDPs at the Ceelsha camps (15km south of Mogadishu), told IRIN on 14 May.

He said many of those displaced by the latest fighting were first-time IDPs, residents of some of the poorest neighbourhoods of Mogadishu. "These are people from the Siina'a, Arjantiina and Tookiyo [all slums in the north of the city]; they are the poorest of the poor," Dini said.

He said they had stayed put during previous clashes in the capital because they did not have the means to escape. "It is an indication of how bad things are," he said. "This current displacement is affecting mainly minorities and others who have no clan support." Dini said the civil society community was appealing to Somalis and donor agencies, "particularly to the United Nations, to urgently come to the assistance of these people who are living in the open and under trees"…

Seafront near Mogadishu, pre-1991