Somali government to relocate IDPs, welcome returning refugees

Mogadishu (KON) - The Somali government plans to relocate thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) currently living in Mogadishu to camps on the outskirts of the city, but there are concerns over inadequate government capacity as well as security and access to services in the proposed relocation areas.

Article Keydmedia Online
27 February 2013

There are an estimated 369,000 IDPs or people living like IDPs in Mogadishu, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Of these, about 270,000 could be relocated to three camps on the outskirts of the capital, helping to decongest the city, according to Mohamed Ahmed Nur Tarsan, Mogadishu’s mayor.

“Honestly, no mayor in the world would tolerate IDPs form[ing] shanty shelters in the capital city. This issue touches [on] the security of the city and remains a threat to the sanitation of the city,” Tarsan said, adding that there are no security problems on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
 
“I am not saying that we should put these people in faraway isolated places, but what I am saying is that we should get better places for them since these people are currently living in appalling conditions.”

IDPs in Mogadishu live in difficult conditions, under threat of extortion and eviction. Providing aid to them has also been difficult in the past due to security constraints.

But in reaction to the relocation plan, IDPs expressed concerns about security and the availability of basic services.

“If we are provided with security and health services, we will obey the government plans. But if we do not feel safe, we will just wait [for] our God here,” Abdullahu Olow Dhere, an IDP in Mogadishu’s Darwish camp, located next to Somalia