Coronavirus: Rights group says overcrowding among Somalia IDPs increases pandemic risk

21 Juillet 2020

Mogadishu, Somalia, July 21 (Infosplusgabon) - Incessant fighting, recurrent droughts and floods, and the worst locust invasion in more than 25 years are forcing more people to flee their homes in Somalia, leading to severe overcrowding and an intensifying risk of COVID-19 among internally displaced people (IDP), human rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

By 19 July, there were 3,119 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Somalia, almost half recorded in Banadir region, according to the Ministry of Health.

Amnesty International noted in a statement that Banadir, where Mogadishu is located, hosts about 500,000 IDPs spread in some 700 settlements. The IDPs are grappling with forced evictions, lack of jobs and inadequate health services in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The vast majority of IDPs are living in overflowing under-serviced camps where clean water and sanitation is inadequate and access to healthcare is extremely limited,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.

“Somalia authorities and international partners must ensure that the rights to water, sanitation, health and adequate housing for IDPs are fulfilled, in line with international human rights standards and guidelines when responding to COVID-19.”

The statement said in June and July 2020, it remotely interviewed over 30 people, including humanitarian workers and 20 IDPs in camps in Kahda, Weydow and Daynile within Banadir region. The organisation also reviewed media reports, confidential NGO data and statements from the Somalia government and international organisations relating to IDPs and the COVID-19 pandemic.

It said those interviewed said access to health care was limited and there were no COVID-19 testing facilities in IDP camps. Due to night curfews and other restrictions healthcare services had been significantly scaled down.

The statement said “Halima Mohamed”, a mother of seven in Dayah IDP camp in Kahda, who fled from conflict in Lower Shabelle region, had no choice but to give birth in her makeshift house in May.

“There was no midwife and I was told the clinic was closed at the time, so I had to give birth at home. We were lucky; both my twin baby boys and I survived by the grace of God.”

Amnesty International quoted three humanitarian workers working with NGOs that support IDP camps in Mogadishu as saying the scaled down health services was due to lack of funding, restrictions on movement and measures to ease crowding at health facilities.

“We have reduced our operations by almost half since COVID-19 struck. These days we only allow a maximum of 10 to 15 patients per day in our clinics in the IDP camps in Weydow neighbourhood,” one of them said.

Prior to COVID-19, they attended to an average of 50 people per day.

Many IDPs, like other poor people in Mogadishu, earned an income from informal work but the COVID-19 measures rendered them jobless, and they are therefore unable to meet basic needs such as buying water, the human rights watchdog said.

“Somalia authorities and humanitarian agencies should consider ways of safely scaling up operations to provide this highly vulnerable group with access to essential services including emergency relief or direct cash transfers to reduce their susceptibility to COVID-19 and uphold their right to an adequate standard of living,” said Muchena.

Amnesty International also said with IDP camps full to capacity, many displaced families are forced to set up informal structures on vacant private land where they are constantly forcefully evicted.

It noted that two leaders of IDP camps in Kahda said 222 families in their camps had been forcefully evicted from private land in April 2020. The Norwegian Refugee Council documents that 33,400 IDPs have been evicted in Mogadishu since January 2020.

"Authorities must place a moratorium on forced evictions including in IDP settlements. They must also ensure that anyone rendered homeless as a result of forced evictions is immediately provided with alternative safe housing. When authorities are unable to do this, they should seek international assistance," said Muchena.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/ILL/GABON2020

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