Somalia: Conflict and drought leaves Mogadishu hungry

September 22nd, 2009 at 9:37 am.

Somalia is experiencing its worst drought in over a decade. With little food to break her fast, a hardworking mother tells Oxfam’s local partners her story of Ramadan in the Mogadishu slums. Oxfam’s Andrea Pattison relays their account.

The city of Mogadishu in Somalia has been devastated by years of conflict, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled the city. For those who remain life can be extremely difficult. Hamza Sheikh, a 34-year-old single mother of six, lives in the city’s slums. Like millions of other Muslims, she has been celebrating Ramadan for the past few weeks:

Hamza Sheikh and her children [Photo credit: SAACID/Oxfam]

“Before he was killed, my husband used to work as a carpenter, making furniture in Bakara market - the biggest market in Mogadishu. But in 2006 heavy fighting broke out between soldiers in the market, and my husband died. He was called Musa Ali, and I was pregnant when he was killed.

“I named my son Ali after my husband’s father, and he’s now just over two years old. He was my sixth child. My eldest son Hassan is 13. I also have four daughters - Fatumo, aged 11, Bishaaro, nine, Farhia, seven, and Firdowsa, who is four. I have been living here in this slum for ten years, ever since I got married.

“My neighbours know and respect that I am the mother of orphans and I make a living by washing clothes for them and their families. I earn 15-20,000 Somali shillings (about 30-40p) when I wash clothes for a family. My mother lives with me, and supports me to look after the children when I go out to work.

“In Ramadan I am fasting because it is a religious duty. Fasting is one the five pillars of Islam, and you cannot not fast if you are a healthy person.

Hamza Sheikh collecting food [Photo credit: SAACID/Oxfam]

“I break my fast with my mother, and I usually get some ground maize, soup, two bananas and a lemon from this community kitchen, which is run by a local organisation called SAACID [with support from the Danish Refugee Council (DRC)] which gives us some food. Sometimes, if I have 2-4,000 shillings (6-8p) to spare, I also buy some dates in order to break my fast. The dates are the most blessed and favoured food, according to our prophet.

“Sometimes I find it hard when there is little food, and we can eat only once - then the next day, it is very difficult to bear the fasting. When we get enough food from the kitchen we separate it into three parts. Some we use to break our fast, and then some we use as Suhur, which is eaten in the middle of the night from around 03:00 to 04:30am. If I eat twice at nights, I can endure the fasting. The third part of the food, I give to my children in the daytime.

“My children are still young and they have not yet reached the age of fasting. But when they reach fifteen years then they will start to fast during Ramadan.

“Some of the people who have fled their homes (due to the recent violence) and live in the camps on the edge of the city, sometimes get extra food from WFP (the World Food Programme) and other organizations. But here we just get a little food from the kitchen. I can’t move to those camps because it needs money, and I don’t know anybody there to support me.”