Somali refugee students yearn for school

[Jacaylbaro]

EL ASHA, Somalia, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Wringing her henna-tattooed hands, 18-year-old Rahmo Omar Hussein says fighting has robbed her of a precious commodity in one of the world's most anarchic cities.

 

"I miss my school and my classmates. My parents said we must live in this poor shelter made of sticks and tattered clothes until the violence dies down," she said in El Asha refugee camp.

 

Two months ago, Rahmo lived in Somalia's seaside capital Mogadishu. But as mortars and fighting hit residential areas, she and her family headed to a camp 12 miles south, joining roughly 600,000 people who have fled the city in the last year.

 

Near-daily clashes between allied Ethiopian and Somali government forces and insurgents is convulsing Mogadishu, where despite 17 years of anarchy, education has still been provided.

 

Though many children remain out of school in the absence of an effective central government, those who can afford to send their children to private schools. The poor send theirs to Islamic schools provided free of charge or for small fees.

 

The United Nations said last year that enrolment in schools had dropped 50 percent in Mogadishu. The world body calls Somalia the world's most pressing humanitarian crisis.

 

Flanked by his mother, 14-year-old Ahmed Hassan waits for tankers to bring water with hundreds of others carrying jerry cans.

 

The eighth-grader said mortar rounds hit his school in Mogadishu, wounding six students.

 

"Since then the school closed, and we were forced to flee here. I want the fighting to stop and I'd like to go back and resume my education," he said.

 

"LIVING IN MISERY"

 

Somalia has been mired in violence since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. A brief respite as Somalia's Islamists took power in mid-2006 didn't last long.

 

Now, the interim Somali government and its Ethiopian allies have been fighting a year-long insurgency against Islamist-led fighters.

 

Clashes in Mogadishu alone killed 6,500 people last year.

 

Many Somalis lack access to basic services like health and education. Delivering aid supplies can require escorts with private militias and frequent stops by impromptu checkpoints where payments must be given for passage.

 

A roadside bomb attack killed three foreign aid workers in southern Somalia in January. Underfunded Africa Union peacekeepers have struggled to contain the violence.

 

Sitting on a worn-out mat, Farhan Ali Muse dictates verses of the Koran to his young students.

 

A filthy curtain hanging on sticks dividing boys and girls at the Koranic school Muse says he started.

 

"Repeated fighting closed my school and coerced me and my family to flee. I opened this Koranic School two months ago when I arrived here and parents of the children give me small fees," the 30-year old teacher says.

 

"I wish we all could go back to our former neighbourhoods in peace because everyone here is living in misery."