Displaced People in Mogadishu Suburbs Complain of Lack of Health Centers
(AWP) - There are no free health centers in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the outskirts of the Somali capital Mogadishu, putting many patients at risk, as intestinal diseases spread due to the lack of health awareness.
Deaths are reported on an almost daily basis due to poor health services and the inability of many to afford treatment in the capital.
One of the sick is Almi Adam, an IDP suffering from hemiplegia, who cannot afford the costs of medication.
He said, “If I had money, I would have sought treatment at one of the big hospitals in the city. This camp where I live has no health centers to go to. We don’t have enough money to eat let alone the costs of medicine and treatment. We appeal to all charitable people to help us.”
Habiba, a displaced woman caring for her mother who has tuberculosis, complained that their financial hardship is preventing them from seeking treatment for her mother who has been confined to her bed for 18 months.
She said, “My mother is sick at al-Foto camp where we live. The camp has no health centers which has worsened my mother’s sickness. We cannot afford to go to the city hospitals. My mother has been bedridden for one and a half years because she suffers from tuberculosis.”
The camp head, Batoula Ahmed, described how the IDPs lacked the simplest essentials of daily life in the camp without health centers.
She said, “Displaced people in this camp suffer from diseases and malnutrition. There are children, women and elderly people who have various illnesses but there are no health centers in the camp. Those who have money go to hospitals in the city, but the displaced people here do not have money and lack the most basic necessities of life.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that there are more than 3.8 million IDPs in Somalia, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian condition, where 6.7 million people are struggling to meet their food needs, while over half a million Somali children are suffering from acute malnutrition.